[Axiom-developer] patches and fixes

[root]

There are a fair number of things "fixed" and a discussion of "fixes"
but there aren't any patches posted.

The procedure we agreed upon was that we would post patches to
the mailing list against the gold branch using

  diff -Naur goldpamphlet newpamphlet




I mention this because I can see a problem developing.
Gaby originally set out to make a global change to axiom for autotools.
This was the stated intention of the build-improvements branch.

There are a large number of "fixes" being applied which appear to
have nothing to do with autotools, such as the sttaylor fix and the
sage change. Worse yet, it appears that the sage connection won't work 
with gold so sage users cannot get the latest axiom "gold" release.

Careful thought will show that this is going to be a major future problem. 

Consider what happens when the time comes for build-improvements to be
merged with silver. There will be hundreds of differences, many of which
will have nothing to do with the build process. 

Each difference has to be fully documented (which I don't see anywhere). 
Each difference has to be tested (and I don't see any test cases anywhere).
Each difference has to be merged and then tested on many platforms 
(pty fixes are going to take a lot of time and testing). 

I'm impressed with the rate of change of fixes and I don't want to 
slow the motion but I think it would be wise to consider submitting
documented, tested fixes against gold if they do not require autotools.

t