[Axiom-developer] axiom compilation succeded

[hemmecke]

Hello,

I have just succeded to compile axiom on

> uname -a
Linux dragonfly 2.2.20-idepci #1 Sat Apr 20 12:45:19 EST 2002
i686 unknown
(2.4GHz/1GB Debian Linux)

without any problem.

Congratulations to the developers!

I know that AXIOM is still in a very early state, but I would like to
add a few comments.

A good thing is that the compilation process works fine. After that
however, someone who wants to give a try on AXIOM, becomes certainly
rather frustrated. The reason is the missing documentation. OK, the
current stage is like that, but I think it is rather important, in
order to attract new people (users/developers/beta testers). I hope
the new axiom book is ready soon.

It would be a good idea to provide at least some sample file with a
collection of commands that are most commonly used in first year
undergraduate courses. Of course the book by Jenks & Sutor is a good
reference, but not everyone has it.

After I had finished the compilation, I looked for documentation. 
Unfortunately only the various Makefile.dvi files yields some
information, but there is one other file

mnt/linux/doc/DeveloperNotes.dvi

which, unfortunately is not a DVI file, but a LaTeX source. The
extension should be changed to avoid confusion. (OK, it is only for
the developers, so maybe it sould not be present in the anonymous
cvs.)

What about ADVI. It seems that it has not been built during make.
Is this intensional or simply will come later when more documentation 
files are available?

Wouldn't it be a good idea to rename the top-level README to 00README
so that it appears first in the directory listing? I would expect that
it guides me through the system, telling me which things are finished
and which are not. This would certainly prevent people (like me)
asking stupid questions about non-existing (or better
not-yet-existing) stuff.



Since I have done some development in Aldor, I am rather interested in
a connection of Aldor and Axiom. Unfortunately, the language is one
thing, the libraries on which to build one's own program are another.

Is it intended that Manuel Bronstein's libraries libaldor and
libalgebra and the axiom library converge? I guess, at the moment they
are incompatible. If I now build some program on libalgebra, is there
a chance (in a nearer future) that I can run this inside AXIOM without
modification. Is someone working on such a connection?

Best regards

Ralf