RE: [Axiom-developer] this is open source

[Page, Bill]

On Wednesday, December 14, 2005 2:43 PM Bob McElrath wrote:
> ... 
> Remember that effort is an exponentially falling distribution.
> Just a guess, but each line below will at least halve the number
> of people that make it to that step.  Open source occurs on the
> tail.

I disagree. Or at least, I don't think that this has to be the case.
That is the reason why we have a wiki containing all the help and
documentation directly available for search and update via the web.
That is why we have the entire Axiom source distribution available
directly for updating over the web. That is why we can write and
execute Axiom programs over the web.

> 
> # website viewers

I want contributors to the Axiom wiki to start here!

> # downloaders

I want potential contributors to the Axiom source code to
start about here!

> # that get axiom running
> # that try to compute something "real"
> # that try to modify something
> # that attempt to submit patches/create arch branch
> # that develop patch to usability
> # that document their patch
> # that take the effort to get the patch integrated.
> 

The rest of this reverse osmosis filter is about long term
quality assurance. That takes time but it does not mean that
developers should hesitate to do make small or large changes
without all this "red tape". What eventually makes it into the
"official" Axiom source distribution is another issue, but that
should not stop anyone from experimenting, learning and
contributing in a much less structured manner.

They can do that privately in their own source code environments
or they can do it more publicly via the Axiom Wiki. All types
of Axiom-related programming are now possible through the web
including Lisp, Boot, Spad, Aldor and Axiom interpreter scripts.
And we also have a very flexible environment for writing
documentation. All of this code and documentation is directly
portable to the actual Axiom source distribution when/if we are
satisfied with the quality of the result.

Regards,
Bill Page.