[Axiom-developer] Pamphlets and LaTex

[Stephen Wilson]

Tim,

I have been trying to get a clear picture of the literate future for
Axiom.

I have been thinking about the pamphlet files as pure LaTeX, and have
some concerns.

The basic issue for me is loosing the weave step.  I believe that a
lisp based noweb replacement could make good use of such a stage.
Just like how a lisp based replacement could make use of the tangle
stage (by sorting the chunks and compiling the lisp/boot/spad code on
the fly, for example).

In noweb, we have the basic syntax that <<chunk>>= starts a block of
code, and @ starts a block of documentation.

On the documentation side, I think having @ as an escape character is
very important for long term goals.  It allows us to embed commands
and information at a meta level, without needing to rely on TeX macros
to communicate all the information we need somehow.  Similar to
CWEB. Of course we could scan the latex for individual items, but
latex is complex and it would be a very difficult task, I think, to
write a robust tool which copes with all the details well.

So, the simple noweb syntax we can extend for our own purposes and we
can manipulate the information contained therein directly using Axiom.
I think there is some real potential here which would be awkward to
achieve with latex only pamphlets.

In the latex only approach, I cannot find any gains in flexibility.


In short, I am advocating we stick with noweb syntax with a view
towards extending the capabilities as demanded by future needs.

Of course, I am still open to being convinced otherwise.


Take care,
Steve