Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: A modest proposal

[Bill Page]

On 6/29/07, C Y wrote:
> --- Stephen Wilson wrote:
>
> > The build environment is not an issue for me at all.  If there is
> > complication, it is due to the fact that there is no clean
> > integration between the tools required to both build the system and
> > extract the code/document bits.  This is one reason why I am excited
> > about asdf-literate, as it should significantly simplify the build
> > as it understands the model.  We need the proper tools for the job,
> > and if they do not yet exist, we can create them.
>
> Bingo.  None of what we're doing with pamphlets or compiling the system
> is fundamentally hard (except maybe the def* parsing, but that can come
> later) and it's just a question of teaching the tools to deal with it
> correctly.
> ...

I very strongly disagree. I do not think the AXIOM project should be
in the business of building literate programming tools. And I am
rather surprised that Stephen should think so since he is also against
the idea of building and maintaining intermediate tools like BOOT that
are much more intimately related to AXIOM than literate programming
tools.

I think one of the great advantages of open source is the ability to
build freely on the work of other open source projects. Tim had the
right idea (but the wrong tool) when he decided to use noweb for
literate programming in Axiom. Re-writing such things in Lisp is just
a diversion away from the real point of the Axiom project (at least
what the Axiom project should be). I cannot imagine that spending time
extending asdf to understand pamphlet format will be anything but a
similar diversion. The result of all this effort is just to build a
bigger ghetto in which Axiom will eventually die... :-(

Regards,
Bill Page.