[Axiom-developer] [FreeAldor] (new)

[belanger]

Changes http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/FreeAldor/diff
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  Axiom is a sophisticated computer algebra system originally developed
as an IBM research project.  IBM sold Axiom to the Numerical
Algorithms Group (NAG) who marketed it and continued its development.
After NAG discontinued Axiom as a commercial product they generously
released part of the Axiom source code under a free license.  Axiom is
now very usable and is currently being actively developed by an
enthusiastic community. It is expected to be useful in research and
education for quite some time.

  The language used for writing Axiom libraries is called SPAD (short
for Scratchpad, the original name of Axiom).  While Axiom was still
being developed by IBM, an improved language, Aldor, was created for
writing Axiom libraries.  While the Aldor compiler was originally part
of the Axiom system, it became a separate project when NAG
discontinued the sale of Axiom as a commercial product.  The Aldor
compiler was not part of Axiom when the Axiom sources were relicensed,
and so is not currently included with Axiom.

  Binaries for Aldor have been made freely available and the sources are
available under a generous license.  However, the license does not
qualify as a free or open source license.  While Axiom can still make
use of Aldor as a library compiler (on those platforms where a
suitable binary version is available), the lack of a free license for
Aldor prohibits it from being a standard part of the Axiom open source
distribution, and so nothing in the base Axiom system can depend on
Aldor.

  A free license for Aldor would allow it to become a standard part of
Axiom, which would improve Axiom and make Aldor a more widespread
language.  A free license available as soon as possible would allow
current development on Axiom to use Aldor.
 
  We, the undersigned, respectfully request that the Aldor compiler be
released under a free license at the earliest opportunity.
 
  Sincerely,


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