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[Axiom-mail] Bourbaki as default pamphlet author name


From: Tim Daly
Subject: [Axiom-mail] Bourbaki as default pamphlet author name
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 09:27:11 -0400

Bertfried,

What I knew about the "Bourbaki" name was that it was associated with
a set of anonymous mathematicians. Given the number of people who have
been associated with Axiom over the years (and I've tried to find out
anyone who has touched it in some way, see the list in the top level
Makefile.pamphlet) it seemed appropriate to continue in the same spirit.
However, Arthur points out that there is a current, active group called
Bourbaki. It wouldn't be appropriate to use the name regardless of the
amusing aspects. So, in a fit of exhaustion last night I renamed the
author to "The Axiom Team". 

I'm open to a default author name. I considered Richard Jenks as he
is the father of this whole effort but I'd have to get his permission.
Similarly with Barry Trager. I've considered creating a combined
default name of Richard Trager but I'd be the only one to "get it".
I also considered William Schelter as the default. I've tried to generate
support for a "Schelter Award" based on the work he did while he was alive.
However, Bill's primary contribution was not DIRECTLY on axiom (though he
did help quite a bit) and I'm undecided about it. I even considered
creating a "Richard Bourbaki", the illegitimate brother of Nicolas but
decided my sense of humor needed to be kept under constraint, at least in
so public a forum.

When there is time I want to revisit the individual files and try to
see if there was a single author (such as some of the algebra files).
If so, I'd like to correct the author name. Credit is important and
easily shared. At the moment all of the author lines were created by
a sed script and my sed skills are limited to one-liners :-)

On the other hand there is a valid argument for an anonymous name
similar to the Bourbaki case as there were a lot of people who contributed
without comment. Plus it is a great way to share the blame :-)

There should be a prize for a winning default name. 

Tim
address@hidden
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