Re: [Axiom-developer] literate programming and Claerbout's Insight

[Gabriel Dos Reis]

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007, C Y wrote:

| Sure, as a commercial product.  Open source is a different ballgame;

What are the concrete differences?

The algorithms have not gotten better, for example.  The documentation
is no really better than what they had before; windows support is worse.

[...]

| > | There is more than one target audience here.
| > 
| > Definitely.  Which is Axiom's?   I doubt it is the one that prefers 
| > failing or poor algorithms.
| 
| That seems to be a bit up in the air, or perhaps "too early to tell" -

well, very few people want to be on board of something with
the audience "too early to tell", but surely casual users are encouraged
to look elsewhere. We should not forget that experts, and those doing CAS for 
living, once started as casual users.  In a heathly, growing community, there
are more "novices" than experts.

[...]

| > | I think it is premature to characterize the Axiom project's output
| > 
| > Indeed, Axiom has been around for only more than 2 decades.  Now, we
| > seem to be looking at a moving target of 30 years horizon.
| 
| Axiom as an open source project has not existed for 2 decades, 

that is true, but you can rewrite history.  Axiom has more than 2 decade
history.  For practical purposes, Axiom as a open source currently
-- for many -- is no better than what it was before.  Are the algorithms
better?  Are the known, documented, bugs fixed?  

| and
| working through legacy code to update/modernize/document is neither
| sexy nor quick.

Right!  And yet we want to attract people.

| > | >   * If you're a casual user, then using Axiom is like flying a
| > | >     helicoptere to buy milk at the store next door.
| > | 
| > | Very true.  Fortunately, Maxima exists for those cases.
| > 
| > Riiiight.  So, who is Axiom's audience?  
| > Those who are doing CAS for leaving cannot use it.  Those who are
| > casual users are encouraged to look elsewhere.
| > Amateurs?
| 
| CAS developers, at the moment - those interested in what a CAS CAN be,
| rather than what they are today.

but those do CAS for living; they are working computational scientists.
We seem to be ignoring them.

-- Gaby