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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




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