RE: [Axiom-developer] Live Pamphlet Editing

[Bill Page]

On November 5, 2005 5:31 AM William Sit wrote:
> On  Fri, 4 Nov 2005 08:33:08 -0500 Tim Daly wrote:
>
> > in addition, bill page has made it possible to edit pamphlet
> > files online at the axiom wiki site. this could greatly
> > simplify the whole system maintenance problem, make it
> > possible to "drag and drop" a changed file from the website
> > to your running axiom, have it rebuilt, and added to the
> > system. this could eliminate the CVS/Arch/Darcs mechanism
> > from the user level and create a whole new way of doing
> > system patch distribution.
>
> Bill, sorry if I missed the message(s) where you might have
> described this.

No problem. I have just updated the IssueTracker page

http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/210PamphletSupportOnMathAction

to better reflect what I have actually implemented so far.
Tim's description above still represents the vision towards
which this work is directed but not yet fully achieved. Still
in it's current state I think it is quite usable. The following
groups of pamphlet files are currently available on MathAction:

http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/axiom--test--1

- a copy of all the pamphlet files from the Axiom source archive
  'axiom--main--1--patch-45'

http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/axiom--book--1

- the pamphlet files for the volumes of the new Axiom book

http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/axiom--GUI--1

- the pamphlet files from Kai Kaminski's AxiomUI project

> Is there an easy way to directly add documentation to an
> existing pamphlet file (like a patch) and the change be
> automatically visible to the discussion forum (such as
> reflecting the change on wiki).

Yes. Pamphlet files can be edited on-line or with an external
editor in exactly the same way as other pages on the wiki.

I have also thought about on-line support for the generation
and application of patch files. I think doing this would not
be difficult but after working with these pamphlet files now
for a while, I (personally) think that this older form of
interaction with source files may not be so relevant in this
new on-line environment. In any case it is still possible to
download the pamphlet source files and use such methods locally
on your own workstation and then upload the result to the wiki.

> If possible, then when some Axiom problem involving the algebra
> code are discussed, whoever examined and understood the code
> can add comments directly.

Yes, that's it exactly. That is possible right now. Please
visit the links I gave above to see how this might work.

> Right now, we create and edit a wiki page (possibly from
> emails), and then later this has to be searched and put
> into the pamphlet file.

Now it can be done directly.

>
> I noted the following Wiki page on MathAction:
>
http://page.axiom-developer.org/zope/mathaction/210PamphletSupportOnMathActi
on
> You mentioned a new pamphlet PageType (pun intended :-) ?), but
> the links
http://page.axiom-developer.org/zope/mathaction/SandBoxEmbededPDF
> (which is apparently a copy of the now defunct page:
http://page.axiom-developer.org/zope/mathaction/SandBoxPamphlet
> where the links (pdf, dvi or src) are broken only give the pdf,
> dvi, and src files of dhmatrix.spad.pamphlet.

For reasons I have posted to IssueTracker as #228, you should
use shorter url:

http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/210PamphletSupportOnMathAction
http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/SandBoxEmbededPDF
http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/SandBoxPamphlet

'SandBoxEmbededPDF' is an example of the original proposed design.
After some consideration (described in the comments attached
to #210) I abandoned the idea of using embedded PDF. The page
'SandBoxPamphlet' is an example of the revised design.

> There are no instructions how to modify the src file (of course
> right now just the SandBox copy, not the original archive copy)
> and have the modified file recompiled into pdf, dvi, src files.

I have just updated the IssueTracker page #210 to better reflect
the current design. Hopefully the new documentation here will be
enough to get you started.

> By the way, I have no trouble, under Windows and FireFox, to
> open the three (pdf, dvi, src) files. The rendering seems ok
> to me.

The problems had to do with the display of PDF files embedded
in an HTML page. For certain combinations of Adobe Acrobat
Reader 7 and FireFox browser version 1.0.x on Windows and some
other browsers on Linux this combination did not work at all
due to a bug in either Acrobat or FireFox or both. In the most
recent versions of FireFox and Acrobat this combination now
works properly on Windows (I haven't tested the newer versions
on Linux yet). But I have opted for the new design that displays
a graphic "thumbnail" first page instead of the embedded PDF
because this should work on virtually all browsers in use on
the web regardless of how they are configured.

If you have any questions, please ask. And if you or anyone
else feel inclined to write some documentation about this from
a "new users' perspective" :) please feel free to add it
somewhere on MathAction.

Regards,
Bill Page.