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[Axiom-developer] Axiom and the scientific commnunauty
From: |
Daniel AUGOT |
Subject: |
[Axiom-developer] Axiom and the scientific commnunauty |
Date: |
Fri, 19 Sep 2003 11:18:15 +0200 |
Dear Axiom developpers,
I think there is an issue for the future life of Axiom, which involves
researchers in computer algebra. From some email exchanges with
friends, I do not feel that the revival of Axiom as free software will
motivate them to go back to Axiom.
In the French commnunauty, which I know a bit, because I was involved
during my PHD thesis, 10 years ago, many people got very involved with
Axiom. Many wrote domains, packages etc... for implementing the
algorithms they were introducing in their research work.
But at his time, Axiom was a very closed software, and the French
communauty was on its own, for documentation, help, contacting gurus,
etc... Axiom also had its load of defaults~: a cumbersome system of
categories, poor speed of code, compiler and interpreter bizareness,
no way to use Unix pipes and redirection etc. Furthermore NAG did not
show any clear sign about the future of Axiom. Even more, there was
the promising A#/axiomxl/aldor project, with Basicmath, but it was
immature, so the choice between Axiom and aldor was unclear.
As a consequence many were confused and discouraged, and switched to
other computer algebra systems, for instance Magma, which offers a
large library and is very fast (although it does not offer the rich
mechanism of Axiom for contructing domains and categories).
Consequently, I think there must be a thinking about the state of
Axiom, and clear signs concerning its future, beyond the point of
making it publicly available. Will the compiler will be fixed ? Will
it be documented ? Will compiled code be faster ? Will researchers in
computer algebra be able to incorporate easily their software ? Will
they be able to redesign the system of categories ? Will it be
possible to link against efficient C code ? etc, etc...
May be the benefits of the free software will show up, but, after
discussion with friends, it will not be enough for switching back to
Axiom.
Kind regards, and felicitations for the work done. I have been able to
download and compile all Axiom, and I am very glad for that.
Daniel Augot, tel. : +33 0 1 39 63 58 71
INRIA-Rocquencourt, Bat. 10 fax. : +33 0 1 39 63 50 51
Domaine de Voluceau, B.P. 105 mel. : address@hidden
F-78153 Le Chesnay Cedex http://www-rocq.inria.fr/~augot
- [Axiom-developer] Axiom and the scientific commnunauty,
Daniel AUGOT <=