[Axiom-developer] proposed fixes

[Martin Rubey]

Dear Tim, Bill, Camm, *

this is to inform you that I tried to organize the issues on IssueTracker a
little. I'd like to ask you to go through those issues where fixes are
proposed, and see which ones you would accept for the next "major" release. I
think that Axiom 3.9 or 3.10, i.e., September or October, would be a good point
to inform the general public about Axiom's progress.

Bill: could you transfer the remaining open bugs from savannah, especially
#9298...

Camm: when Bill has done this, could you please upload your (temporary) fix for
the bug in new!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I must say that I'm a bit unhappy about the bug fixing - pro{c,gr}ess. I think:

Since Axiom is an Open Source project, and little to no funding is available,
we should rather try to fix things quickly, rather than wait months until
everybody in the project had time to review the fix. If it turns out that the
fix is bad, it is trivial to remove it again.

I do agree (now) that my fix for the parenthesis problem in sums and products
is not good. However:

* this was spotted quite soon

* there is still no alternative fix available, and my fix at least gives
  correct answers.

We simply don't have the (wo)manpower to do everything the "right" way
immediately. I'm absolutely certain that a bad fix is better than no fix.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bounties:

I'd like to propose two bounties:

* a bounty for somebody who implements a fast rational interpolation algorithm

* a bounty for somebody who implements an interpreter for aldor in lisp.

If you reply before tommorow afternoon (european time), I could formulate these
bounties and send them to comp.lang.lisp and sci.math.

I'd give only symbolic prices, i.e., 200$ each.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm off for two weeks of holidays saturday, so: no email, no axiom.

Martin