Re: [Axiom-developer] debian layout

[Camm Maguire]

Greetings!

Tim Daly  <address@hidden> writes:

> re: .dvi files are considered developer documentation....
> 
> two comments. 
> 
> clearly the dhmatrix.spad.dvi file is end-user documentation.  it
> contains parts of Richard Paul's PhD thesis (with permission)
> explaining the theory. 
> 
> the documentation of the boot and lisp level are also end-user
> documentation albeit for a different class of end-user. Axiom has
> always been the best system to use for doing math research. as such it
> often requires modification.  (witness, for example, the Math on the
> Net (MONET) project which is an end-user of Axiom, not a developer,
> but needing to change the system to support the research goal).
> 
> each level of documentation is both useful for the developer (such as
> myself) and as a user (such as a mathematician wanting to understand
> dhmatrices). 
> 
> in any case, virtually all of the files in axiom are documentation
> (pamphlet) files. look carefully and you won't see any C, lisp, boot,
> spad, makefiles, etc. it's quite artificial to split out "developer"
> documentation. in fact, in the long term Axiom will be one, large,
> integrated document. 
> 
> so i would argue against the 20th century mindset that documentation
> belongs in a separate package. Axiom is taking the path that there is
> no code, just documentation with execution semantics.
> 

Well said, and may I extend my complements for such an original and
sensible approach.  I suggest then that all documentation be in
axiom-doc, and that this be required by axiom (i.e. not optional).  I
can't include it in the same package as the binaries, as the
documentation is binary independent, and need not (cannot by Debian
policy) be duplicated 12 times in the archives.

Perhaps the dependency relationships of the other packages need
altering as well?

Take care,

> Tim
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Camm Maguire                                            address@hidden
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah