RE: [Axiom-developer] database fixes

[Page, Bill]

On Monday, October 16, 2006 8:47 PM Waldek Hebisch wrote:
> ...
> 1) ATM I can not add much value to what is already there --
>    I can read the code but the classic rule of documentation is
>    "documentation should not repeat the code"...

Actually this classic rule of documentation is *not* appropriate
to literate programming. In a literate program the document contains
the code so it certainly "repeats the code" in that sense. The code
illustrates and implements the ideas described in the document. Code
and documentation are not two separate things.

> 2) AFAIK Tim is working on the same file and scattered changes
>   (or some re-organization) is likely to create conflict with his
>   changes.

No problem. That is why we use version control systems. You both
can make changes and conflicts can be easily resolved.

> 3) For me diff is a very important tool and to make my work easier
>    (or even possible) I want to do minimal changes.

If you wish to run diff on only the code you should run notangle
first to extract just the code from each literate document
(pamphlet).

What Gaby (and Tim Daly) are saying is that when you submit patches,
these patches should be changes to the pamphlet files which result
in an easy to understand document (e.g. in dvi format) and which
produce your modified code when input to notangle.

Regards,
Bill Page.