Re: [Axiom-developer] status of windows version

[Waldek Hebisch]

Gabriel Dos Reis wrote:
> "Bill Page" <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> [...]
> 
> | wh-sandbox was branched from build-improvements before the
> | ability to build on Windows was added so, no, I don't think
> | wh-sandbox will build on Windows at this time. It would be nice
> | if Waldek or Gaby could merge the build-improvements branch
> | with the wh-sandbox branch. If they could do that, I think
> | it would form a very good basis for a new Axiom Silver
> | distribution.
> 
> Waldek is more familiar with wh-sandbox than me, so I would pass the
> ball to him :-)

Well, I actually intended to bulk-merge changes to build-improvements
but some changes (like removal of DESTDIR) look backwards, some other
changes (src/algebra/Makefile.pamphlet and src/interp/Makefile.pamphlet)
are from my point of view mostly irrelevant (due to new algebra
bootstrap).  In general many changes looks like incomplete transitions
(was there any reason not to ansify graph subdirectory?).  I could
probably just pick changes needed for Windows build.  But I decided
to not do so for two reasons:
- it would make full merge harder
- it is rather incovenint for me to test on Windows

> However, there are other experiments in wh-sandbox that we should
> discuss before we consider it basis for Axiom Silver.  That discussion
> surely would be long and intense; so I would prefer Waldek works more
> on it before we get to that point.

Let me summarize main changes in wh-sandbox:

1) removal of unused code from compiler/interpreter
2) translating depsys using Shoe and removal of depsys bootstrap Lisp
3) new algebra bootstrap and removal of algebra bootstrap Lisp
4) mechanical generation of (most of) .pht pages
5) hyperdoc and algebra fixes
6) removal of useless files
7) pretty-printing of intermediate files and asq rewrite
8) adding guessing package written by Martin Rubey

Given change may be split into multiple commits, but looking at change
log should be clear how to categorize commits.  Somebody making a
release may prefer to pick only bug fixes (position 5) or maybe
also guessing package.  To large degree this should be possible since
(IIRC) only some documentation fixes depend on generation of .pht pages
(and one can just pick the newly generated pages), otherwise fixes do not
depend on structural changes.  OTOH I consider structural changes
essential for future Axiom maintenance.  I plan much deeper structural
changes, but IMHO they already give significant benefits.  There
are some costs, for example new algebra bootstrap takes more time than
the old one.  I feel reasonably confident that changes I made work
correctly so if I was making a release I would include them.  

-- 
                              Waldek Hebisch
address@hidden