RE: [Axiom-developer] database fixes

[Page, Bill]

On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 12:09 AM Tim Daly wrote:

> ...
>
> Waldek Hebisch wrote
> > 
> > The patch I wrote changed the paphlet file.  I admit that I did
> > not use dvi viewer to check formatting, but since the parts I
> > changed follow textual format using only text terminal should be
> > OK.  
> 
> ummm, well, the pamphlet file IS the source code. if you changed
> the lisp code would you post a change without trying it? if you
> changed the latex would you post a change without trying it?
> 
> it's all 'one thing', not code+documentation.
> think of latex as a compiler stage.
> always latex the sources, always compile and run the sources.
> 
> (gaby and bill disagree with me)
> 

Actually I don't think we disagree. At least I do agree that
running latex on the noweave output from a modified pamphlet file
is an essential step in creating a literate program. The only
issue that I recall debating is whether it makes sense to always
perform this noweave/latex step even when you know that no changes
have been made, e.g. when trying to compile the Axiom system from
an unmodified source distribution on a new system (which may or
may not have latex installed). I believe there are practical
instances (such as the case of the SourceForge compile farm) where
not being able to disable the generation of the human readable
documentation is quite inconvenient. For that reason I think that
it makes sense to provide a 'make' option that omits this step
when desirable.

Regards,
Bill Page.