Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: Hyperdoc

[Ralf Hemmecke]

> 2.  Replace the programs that translate LaTeX into other formats with
> programs doing the same job, but written in Lisp.
>
>     This is more my area of interest, and I don't know that anyone else
> shares it - I think Tim might be innocent here ;-).  However, since
> this wouldn't even be VISIBLE to anyone unless they were calling the
> typesetting tools by hand (even now, doesn't the build wrap that in the
> document script?) I don't see why anyone should be worried by
> discussing the possibility.

You have probably noticed that any current program that translates LaTeX 
into some other format treats only a subset of the TeX language. TeX4ht 
does a very good job here and it has one big advantage. It uses TeX (the 
program) itself to interpret the input. I'm pretty sure that you could 
even produce a LISP format of your LaTeX input if you use tex4ht and 
translate to xml (which is just a slightly different way of putting the 
parens---so basically you have the tree structure of LISP).

Cliff, I don't know why it is better to write everything anew in LISP.
Use the tools at hand and build something that can actually compete with 
current CAS (plural). We fight with the future and haven't even reached 
the present.

Tim, my statement is in no way against your visions. In fact, I *very* 
much like that you every now and then tell us to lift our heads and look 
ahead of time. But still, we first need something reasonably good so 
that Axiom becomes more attractive to more developers. We desparately 
need more people.

Ralf