Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: Axiom trunk failure

[root]

> |   (setq compiler::*suppress-compiler-notes* t)

this change is already integrated into the new bookvol5.pamphlet file.
however that file is radically changed from the current version
and is not yet ready to be released to the outside world. when
that major change is released in a future version the whole issue
will disappear. 

>   According to that message all but two of your patches to GCL would
> be already present in GCL.  Please could you clarify why we are still
> keeping more than patches for GCL?

time. again, the issue is time. it takes a long time to make changes
to axiom assuming you're going to ensure they are correct before
releasing them to the world.

GCL works as it is currently installed in axiom. many other things
do not. still other facilities needs documenting. yet more need
enhancing. 

the long term will find axiom on ansi common lisp, hopefully
without patches to any of the ansi lisp systems, including gcl.
however i have not yet finished the ansi port but when that major 
change is released in a future version the whole issue will disappear.


about every 6 months i finish a major portion of axiom work (e.g.
the original algebra, the original book, the browser recovery, the
graphics recovery, the sman "feature complete" build, major ports,
the tutorial book, etc). there are yet more in the pipe and when
i sit down to work on axiom in the limited time i have available
i need to work on big changes which make the system more useful
and accessible. 

if you follow the GCL discussions from the past it is possible
to re-engineer axiom so it will run on a natively installed GCL.
to do that you need to:

  *) change configure to detect if gcl is installed
  *) change configure to ensure that the native gcl is the
     correct version and patch level
  *) if not, build gcl from zips and apply the correct patches

i would note here that it is NOT acceptable to stop the build
and insist that the user install/upgrade some other package. axiom 
builds should 'just work'. 
  
  *) change/document the top level makefile to reflect these changes

  *) change/document the lsp/makefile to reflect these changes

  *) change/docuemnt the src/boot/makefile, src/interp/makefile, and
     src/algebra/makefile to build using native gcl

  *) document the changes
  *) test the changes against a prior version
  *) test the changes on all known ports
  *) post the patches

there is no such thing as a simple job.

t