Re: [Axiom-developer] build-improvements and latex

[Ralf Hemmecke]

> I think perhaps the pamplet files should interact with hyperdoc. Or
> rather hyperdoc should be replaced with a web browser interface that
> would integrate with the dvi/pdf files including hyperlinks between
> them.

I am more in favour of any webbrowser than hyperdoc. Hyperdoc looks old.
The contents is what we should care about. And then I'd like to see a 
nice help system. I think Mathematica has quite a reasonable one. It 
also links to the Mathematica book. I am not an expert in that but I 
guess, we can achieve it also in a normal webbrowser. The Eclipse 
documenation would be an example.

And yes, I like some features of hyperdoc. I like to click on a category 
or a domain and see its documentation and I can ask a category for all 
domains that implement this category. That is sometimes quite helpful. 
So in a replacement of hyperdoc must be as "active" as hyperdoc is now.

> > My dream would be to have for each bigger unit one document (which
> > is .dvi, .pdf or .html -- you have already seen in ALLPROSE that it
> > is not so hard to generate different output formats). By "bigger
> > unit" I approximately mean the subdirectories in src. Such a
> > document would be similar to the ALLPROSE stuff -- hyperlinks here
> > and there.

> > The question is whether other Axiom developers would like it or
> > whether there are other suggestions we could agree upon. It's a lot
> > of effort after all. And before I invest time there I would rather
> > like to know in advance what other peoples dreams are. So that I
> > don't have to throw away my stuff in the end.

> Ralf, I appreciate that you have put a lot of work into ALLPROSE but
> when I look at it I see a tool that seems more suitable to the
> user/developer of Axiom library code then to the general build 
> environment for Axiom.

OK, maybe I should say half-ALLPROSE. When I speak about ALLPROSE in the 
context of Axiom, it makes no sense to carry over all of the build 
procedures that are in there. Only that related to documentation is 
perhaps relevant at the moment for Axiom.  It basically concerns some 
.sty files and some conventions of how documentation should be written.

> It that sense I see it as part of the type of
> web browser interface that I referred to above.

> But for development *my* dream really is not just bigger units but 
> rather a single outline for the entire Axiom project such as is 
> possible in Leo. This outline allows you to navigate freely just like
> navigating in the src directory right down to the "chunk" level with
> quick access to generated documentation, source code and the build
> environment. The outline is like a tree structure but includes
> "cloning" which actually creates a lattice and makes it possible to
> create different "views" of the same information without duplicating
> content.

Bill, believe me, I am actually on your side. But there are a few problems.

First. I did not find Leo too attractive to me since it does not 
actually enforce an LP style.

Second. Although I like this idea with different views (oh that would be 
the "crystal idea" right?) on code+documentation, it becomes harder to 
actually write the documentation so that it stays human readable. The 
question namely is: What are the smallest resonable units that can be 
moved around and included in other views. If you change the content of 
one unit, it also has influence on another "view" where this unit is used.

So my current position is a bit hesitant although I like this 
"multiple-views" thing.

Ralf