[Axiom-developer] Axiom Availability Announcement

[root]

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Axiom exists as free and open source software.

The first version of the Axiom sources has been uploaded to the CVS at
http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/axiom. Congrats to all involved.
Many thanks to the Numerical Algorithms Group, the CAISS Institute at
City College of New York and to the people of these mailing lists.

This version contains (almost) all of the algebra, the interpreter,
and the spad compiler. This is the heart of Axiom. The graphics,
hyperdoc, documentation, numerical code, Axiom Journal papers,
openmath, and CATS test suite are in my source tree but are not ready
for distribution yet. I'll announce these parts as they become
available.

A gzipped-tar file of the sources will be available soon.
Debian apt and Redhat rpm files are under discussion.

The CVS version can be downloaded by anonymous CVS:

cvs -d:pserver:address@hidden:/cvsroot/savannah login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:address@hidden:/cvsroot/savannah co axiom

NOTE: when prompted for a password for anoncvs simply press the Enter key

The primary documentation is in the Makefile.dvi file.

To build the system in a directory (e.g. /SPAD) you do:

cd /SPAD
export AXIOM=/SPAD/mnt/linux
make

The executable is (currently) found by doing:

export PATH=/SPAD/obj/linux/bin:/SPAD/mnt/linux/bin:$PATH
interpsys

The build takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes on a 2Ghz/1Gb machine.
You might want to do the build in an emacs shell buffer so you can
save the console output in case of trouble.

So far the build works properly on Redhat GNU/Linux 9. If you build it
on another system please let us know. A port to Windows is in process.

This is an alpha version of the system so expect (and report) bugs.
The savannah website has a bug reporting tool.

The algebra runs but has not yet been tested. This version has been
uploaded so we can all test from the same base. When reporting bugs
please use this version number printed at the top of your Axiom session.
It will look something like:
  Thursday, August 28, 2003, 2:31am

This version is a complete rebuild of Axiom. Many changes have been made.

First, the system has been rewritten using literate programming.
Each file is in "pamphlet" format (which is basically Latex with
two extra tags). The reason for this is explained in the top-level
Makefile.dvi file.

Second, the system has been ported to GCL. This is the first of many
common lisp ports where Axiom will exist.

Third, the makefile tree has been rewritten. Most of the documentation
that exists at the moment is in the various Makefile.dvi files.

Fourth, the algebra is built from scratch rather than pre-existing files.

The tenkan.org website and CVS is now obsolete and will be removed. 
Please use savannah for future development.

Much work needs to be done. Click on the homepage link to see some of
the future tasks.

Questions, comments, and snide remarks can be sent to me at:

Tim Daly
address@hidden
address@hidden