Re: [Axiom-developer] version control

[Gabriel Dos Reis]

root <address@hidden> writes:

| > | hmmm.... methinks you might not realize that axiom is, at least under
| > | my view, trying to take a new direction about what 'source code' means.
| > 
| > well, so far, it has failed to convincingly tell us what that new
| > direction is.
| > 
| > | it is my belief that systems like axiom can only survive if we start
| > | writing for people rather than machines.
| > 
| > yes; but I don't see how that implies keeping the video under CVS or SVN.
| 
| we've had this discussion before. see the discussion surrounding your
| suggestion that we make building the documentation portion of the
| literate programs optional.

and you've seen build failure reports on "common" platforms because of
unreasonable insistance to latex files everytime and everywhere, when
in fact it is not needed. 
As of this morning, for the build-improvements branch, building the
doc is optional and I have been able to build axiom on more machines,
including some SF "broken" machines. 

Ultimately, I suspect the question is whether we want to ensure we
build a black hole ghetto around Axiom -- from which no ligh should
escape -- because the world is not ready to see it yet, or whether we
want to build on existing technology to bring better alternatives.

| does a checkout now exclude video?
| 
| the questions come down to 
| 
| 
| 
| 1) what kind of final product do you expect when you do:
| 
| cvs co ... axiom
| cd axiom
| ./configure
| make
| make install
| axiom

Any procedure that includes the first step definitely is broken if we
want to attain larger class of users.

Consequently, I propose this -- before we take over the world and we
make Lisp the only constitutional programming language --

  * get an axiom source  -- this does not mean you have to check out
    of CVS/SVN
  * ./configure && make && make install

The crucial difference is the first step.  The distribution tarball
need not contain only source files that come from the CVS/TLA/SVN repo.

| 2) what kind of environment do you expect if you want to write 
| a new axiom domain? if you do:
| 
| )compile mynewfoo.pamphlet
| 
| does it build the documentation? 

*optionally*

| does it update the browser? 

when it builds the documentation.

| does it hyperlink to your video information?

*optionally*

| does it allow drag-and-drop of new domains?

*optionally*

| or does it simply extract the computer program and compile it?

depends on the options.

-- Gaby