Re: [Axiom-developer] Axiom, FriCAS, forks and teeth

[C Y]

Ralf Hemmecke wrote:
> On 07/10/2007 04:22 AM, Bill Page wrote:
>> On 7/9/07, C Y wrote:
>>> ... Literate programming is not a mainstream methodology (in my opinion)
>>> because few developers are willing to accept the long lead times and
>>> hard
>>> work of researching the necessary background to make a good literate
>>> document. ...
> 
> Literate programming is not mainstream since it costs a lot of time and
> the programmer puts all or at least most of his knowledge about the
> program, background, and design into a pamphlet. He basically teaches
> future programmers and lowers the hurdle for them to understand the
> program. *He makes himself more easily replacable by others.* Would you
> do LP if you work in industry?

Probably would depend on the organization.  If they were smart enough to
want to retain people who do work of sufficiently high quality that it
is easily maintained down the road, yes.  If not, I'd be worried about
the company anyway... people are not (at least in the US) required to
stay at one job and often move to another one of their own accord.

> The only reasonable way I see is: don't show the sources. But then you
> lose the ideal of LP that you want to teach...

That's why I view open source as a potential venue for a new level of
software quality.  We can (and should) use techniques that would never
appeal to the commercial world because they do not (directly) translate
into salable product.

Cheers,
CY