[Axiom-developer] Re: The 30 Year Horizon

[Gabriel Dos Reis]

root <address@hidden> writes:

[...]

| I attended a research conference in France and called old developers.

I think I was in the room.  The idea of open source algebra was
enthusiastically embraced.  I distinctly remember you vigorously
defending the idea that people should gather around Axiom, while other
ideas (liek starting a *new* project) were floating around.  How many
did actually follow?  Do you believe it is just a matter of them not
knowing or being "immature"? 

Over the last couple of months I've been talking to colleagues in
France about gathering effort around Axiom.  I can't reproduce the
reactions here.  I don't believe this is just a matter of people not
knowing the value of a project.  There is something deeper to be
analyzed.  No, it is not just because they don't understand
"literate programming".  

[...]

| I'm open to discussing goals but not in this "we're right, you're
| wrong" adversarial approach.

Please could you be more specific about what you mean?

[...]

| However I see the build-improvements branch completely ignoring goals.

then, you don't see the build-improvements clear enough.

| When *I* don't understand why decisions are being made and how they
| fit the future direction I have to say something fundamental is broken.

When you don't understand the decisions, you can ask for clarifications.

[...]

| * I see files being thrown out, like the document command, because
|   they don't fit some standard.

Tim, please check *facts* before you make a fool of yourself in public
accusing people of wrong-doing, when in fact you just prefer to ignore
reality because it does not match your preconceived ideas of how
evil people must be.   As a matter of fact document on
build-improvements is enhanced to handle more complex cases of code
extraction, documentation in DVI generation: Its content is reproduced
below.  Please tell me how it "is being thrown out".  

[...]

|                                                Axiom created
| object-oriented programming before the idea existed and still
| does things that some other OO systems don't such as distinguishing
| on return types. These ideas were ahead of their time.

Tim, Simula invented object-oriented programming, before Axiom even
existed.  Don't make people think that Axiom is about History Revisionism.

  http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~kristen/FORSKNINGSDOK_MAPPE/F_OO_start.html

That doing will only shed profound doubts about his scientific value,
and chase away respectable and potential contributors.  Maybe that is
what you want, I don't know.

-- Gaby

#!/bin/sh

# usage:
#    document --latex file
#    document --weave file.pamphlet
#    document --weave --latex file.pamphlet
#    document --tangle file.pamphlet
#    document --tangle=chunk --output=fileout filein.pamphlet
#   [ plus any legacy usage ]


# set -x

address@hidden@
address@hidden@

address@hidden@
address@hidden@

TEXINPUTS=.:@axiom_builddir@/share/texmf/tex:$TEXINPUTS
export TEXINPUTS
BIBINPUTS=.:@axiom_builddir@/share/texmf/tex:$BIBINPUTS
export BIBINPUTS


do_index=
do_latex=
do_tangle=
do_weave=
chunk=
file=
output=

while : ; do
    case $1 in
        --weave)
           do_weave=yes
           shift
           ;;

        --latex)
           do_latex=yes
           shift
           ;;

        --index)
           do_index=yes
           # FIXME: --index may be used only with --latex.  Check.
           shift
           ;;

        --tangle=*)
           do_tangle=yes
           chunk=`echo $1 | awk -F'=' '{ print $2; }'`
           shift
           ;;

        --tangle)
           do_tangle=yes
           # --tangle may not be combined with any other
           # options.  FIXME:  Check that. 
           shift
           ;;

        --output=*)
           output=`echo $1 | awk -F'=' '{ print $2; }'`
           shift
           ;;

        --*)
           echo unrecognized option $1
           exit 1
           ;;

        *) break ;;
    esac
done

if test x$do_tangle = xyes; then
    # FIXME: Check that the input file name does indeed have
    # a pamphlet extension.
    file=$1
    if [ -z $output ]; then
        output=`basename $file .pamphlet`;
    fi

    # FIXME: Ideally, we should just prepend -R to $chunk
    #        if it is non-null, and say $tangle $chunk $file > $output
    #        Alternatively, we could initialize chunk to '*' and
    #        unconditionally use -R"$chunk".
    if [ -z "$chunk" ]; then
        $tangle $file > $output
    else
        $tangle -R"$chunk" $file > $output
    fi
    # FIXME: Handle errors.
    exit $?;
fi


if test x$do_weave = xyes; then
    file=`basename $1 .pamphlet`
    $weave -delay $1 > $file.tex
    if test x$do_latex != xyes; then
        exit 0;
    fi
fi

if test x$do_latex = xyes; then
    if [ -z $file ]; then
        file=`basename $1 .tex`
    fi
    $latex --interaction nonstopmode $file;
    if [ x$do_index = xyes ]; then
        $makeindex $file.idx
    fi
    $latex --interaction nonstopmode $file;
    exit $?
fi


if [ "$#" = "3" ]; then
 REDIRECT=$2
 FILE=`basename $3 .pamphlet`
 $tangle -t8 $FILE.pamphlet >$FILE
 $weave -delay $FILE.pamphlet >$FILE.tex
 $latex --interaction nonstopmode $FILE.tex >$REDIRECT
 $latex --interaction nonstopmode $FILE.tex >$REDIRECT
 rm -f $FILE~
 rm -f $FILE.pamphlet~
 rm -f $FILE.log
 rm -f $FILE.tex
 rm -f $FILE.toc
 rm -f $FILE.aux
 exit 0
fi
if [ "$#" = "1" ]; then
 FILE=`basename $1 .pamphlet`
 $tangle -t8 $FILE.pamphlet >$FILE
 $weave -delay $FILE.pamphlet >$FILE.tex
 $latex $FILE.tex 
 $latex $FILE.tex
 rm -f $FILE~
 rm -f $FILE.pamphlet~
 rm -f $FILE.log
 rm -f $FILE.tex
 rm -f $FILE.toc
 rm -f $FILE.aux
 exit 0
fi
echo "document [ -o redirect ] pamphlet"

# set +x