[Axiom-developer] Re: noweb "bug" (was: article "standard" header/footer)

[Ralf Hemmecke]

> > re: advocacy
> >
> >   ok. you're advocating a change.
>
> No, I am just complaining that you did something wrong 3 years
> ago. It was Ralf who was advocating a change. I just agreed
> with him. ;) 

Hmm, was I advocating? Well, my point of view is to minimise the effort 
of developing/maintaining axiom. As I now more clearly see, noweb is a 
piece of software that need not be included with an Axiom distribution.
For GCL I cannot say anything. But I accept what Tim has done. He has 
brought Axiom to the open source world, so he has the right to be the 
leader and also the right to do things his way. Well that I don't agree 
with including noweb just does not mean that I stop working for Axiom, 
it is just that any bug or fix I find in noweb will be sent to Norman 
Ramsey. I will never modify the version that comes with Axiom.
I guess many people would think that way. If Tim has enough time to 
maintain that version, fine with me.

> The only change that I am advocating is that we
> do everything we can to attract more Axiom developers.

Oh. I wholeheartedly agree. And for that MathAction and the whole web 
stuff is necessary. But it is not all. Although I am now following the 
axiom-developer list for about a year or so, my contribution to Axiom is 
still close to zero in terms of actual code/documentation. Only by the 
mail of Tim some days ago, I became aware again of book--main--1. I 
checked it out and found several bookvol?.pamphlet files that I always 
missed. That they are mostly unfinished does not matter too much.

But what matters is that there is just a link on the website telling 
about book--main--1. I cannot remember that I have read much about the 
different volumes that should be written. So why should I check out 
book--main--1 if I am new to Axiom and just want to learn how I could 
contribute? I don't think new developers would want to work on the book 
in the first place.

But why is that branch interesting?

>Axiom Volume 1: Tutorial of Axiom
>Volume 2: Programming
>Volume 3: Reference
>Volume 4: Developers Guide
>Volume 5: Interpreter
>Volume 6: Compiler -- title only
>Volume 7: Graphics -- title only
>Volume 8: Hyperdoc -- title only
>Volume 9: Algebra
>Volume 10: Numerics

Can you see Volume 4? THAT is what a new developer would be looking for 
(IMHO, of course). Unfortunately vol4 is mainly non-existing.

Tim wanted me to take over volume 9, but after getting an overview of 
the volume tiltles I think a Developers Guide is much more needed than 
the Algebra part (although I rather like to do some algebra), in order 
to get potential new developers more quickly into the system. The 
biggest problem that Axiom has is the number of active developers. If I 
count correctly then one decimal digit is enough. That is, of course, 
nothing given the size of Axiom.

If the Developers Guide never goes to press, I don't care. It should be 
evolving and fix certain conventions/standards that the current 
developers agreed upon and that every developer should follow.
For example, also the build process could be described there.

If I understand correctly every sources of Axiom are under the src 
directory. So I suggest, Tim, you put all the bookvolume?.pamphlet under
axiom--main--1/src/doc. And make a note in the top-level README about 
the availability of the src/doc directory with all its volumes. I would 
then start to work a bit on volume 4 in order to demonstrate how my 
documentation ideas are. If most of the current developers find that 
form attractive I could extend to the other volumes.

Ralf