Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: Requiring LaTeX

[Ralf Hemmecke]

> | Latex is not optional, it is not overhead, it is not waste.
> | If latex is not installed then axiom SHOULD NOT BUILD.

I must say, I don't understand that. If you type "make" that will build 
the whole system. Why cannot there be some targets like "make binaries", 
"make doc" to split that process?

Suppose you are an axiom-developer (and you can build everything of 
Axiom on your local machine). Now person A is posting a message that 
Axiom does not build on machine X for this or that reason. Let's say the 
reason is that the binaries don't compile. You have access to a similar 
machine X' and you have the feeling that you could solve the problem.
You checkout Axiom on X' start compilation and... the compilation stops 
just after trying to latex the first Makefile.pamphlet, because 
unfortunately, LaTeX is not installed on that machine and you don't have 
root access to install it.

In any case it simply would cost you too much time to look for a bugfix 
and so you just say

rm -rf $AXIOMTREE

and don't even post on axiom-developer that you had tried to solve the 
issue.

A build system that builds parts of Axiom with fewer requirements (like 
building binaries and no .dvi files) is just a PLUS for Axiom. That has 
NOTHING to do with Tim's wish that Axiom should not (fully) build if 
LaTeX is not available. It's just support for Axiom developers.

> | I get the distinct impression that no-one has really made the
> | transition to literate programming.
>
> I strongly suspect you get a VERY WRONG impression.

I also think so. Tim, it was basically you and all that Axiom stuff that 
made me try LP. And although I think I've understood the change in 
mindset, I must admit that it is not completely trivial to change my 
previous way of programming to an LP style. You can see that from all my 
code in ALLPROSE and aldor-combinat 
svn://svn.risc.uni-linz.ac.at/hemmecke/combinat/trunk/combinat
But I will never go back to non-LP.

Ralf