RE: [Axiom-developer] Re: this is open source

[Bill Page]

On December 15, 2005 5:13 AM Matthias Heiler wrote:
> 
> "Page, Bill" <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > They can do that privately in their own source code environments
> > or they can do it more publicly via the Axiom Wiki. All types
> > of Axiom-related programming are now possible through the web
> > including Lisp, Boot, Spad, Aldor and Axiom interpreter scripts.
> 
> For a beginner these are too many languages to choose from.
> People need guidance when to use which, and which language will
> be supported on the long run.  (Nobody wants to invest time in a
> language that will soon be discontinued.)
> 

Isn't that what they said about Fortran? :)

As far as I am concerned none of these languages should be
discontinued. They are all essential to the way Axiom is
built. (Tim Daly disagrees about Boot, but that is a different
story.)

Learning Lisp is one thing in itself. If you program at all, you
should at least know something about Lisp.

Learning Axiom interpreter scripts is essential for all but
trivial use of Axiom.

Learning Spad is essential for Axiom library programming.

Learning Boot is simple because it is essentially a simplified
form of Spad - an intermediate language between Lisp and Spad.
Boot is used only internally in the Axiom compiler and interpreter.

I think that it is the nature of Axiom that it's development
environment can not be made much simpler than this. There is
the old saying: Everything should be as simple as possible,
but not simpler. :)

Regards,
Bill Page.