Re: [Axiom-developer] Axiom, FriCAS, forks and teeth

[Bill Page]

On 7/9/07, Jay Belanger wrote:
> "Bill Page" <address@hidden> writes:
> ...
> > On 7/8/07, you wrote:
> >> So I go away for an internet-free weekend, and what do I find when I come
> >> back?  A fork of Axiom with its own name, and people on the mailgroup baring
> >> their teeth at each other in a most unseemly manner.  So, so, fork away...
> >> but what I want to know is - where does this leave me, a common-or-garden
> >> user?
> >
> > Personally I think you should view this as a positive development.
> ...
> > so one way or another it's future is now more assured than it was
> > before.
>
> I think that's stretching things, to put it mildly.  Resources are
> being divided, developers are being split.  At least one person said
> they're leaving the Axiom project if there aren't enough developers,
> indicating that having developers leave (and anyone trying to work on
> two projects, even closely related ones, won't contribute as much as
> if they concentrated on one) can snowball.

Only one Axiom developer (Martin Rubey) has said publicly that he
would probably quite the Axiom project but I am optimistic that in
fact he will continue his interest in Axiom one way or the other. I do
not see any more division now between the Axiom project and the FirCAS
project than there already was within the Axiom project before the
fork was officially declared.

> I find the whole thing odd.  I thought Tim was pretty clear from the
> beginning on what the goals of the Axiom project were, and it seems as
> if many in the community hopped on board but really didn't like the
> goals.  I thought that the literate CAS approach was very exciting,
> and made it stand out quite a bit to me; a non-literate Axiom wouldn't
> have nearly the appeal.

Well speaking for just myself, I am no less interested now in literate
programming and how this can be applied to CAS then I was when I
started with the Axiom project. I just think that 5 years is long
enough to spend on the current approach to conclude that it has been a
failure. It appears that there are valid reasons why Knuth-style
literate programming is not now a mainstream programming methodology
and these reasons apply just as much to Axiom as any other project.

But literate programming is not really the problem. Rather I think the
problem as usual, is just the way in which decisions are (and are not)
being made in the project.

> > There is no reason to think that the Axiom project is going to
> > disappear
>
> I don't think so, either, but the chances that it will are greater
> than they were before.

Nonsense. Forks have occurred in many very successful open source projects.

Regards,
Bill Page