Re: [Texmacs-dev] New REDUCE plugin (second try)

[Andreas Seidl]

On Wed, 19 Oct 2005, Andrey G. Grozin wrote:

> On Wed, 19 Oct 2005, Joris van der Hoeven wrote:
> > Andreas: can you please take into account Andrey's remarks and
> > send me a tarball with the new plug-in. Then I will include it
> > for the next version.
> My script is not required for working with the reduce plugin; any 
> modification of the current reduce script which checks if we are running 
> under TeXmacs and disables redfront would be enough.

> > Please make it as simple as possible for user to install the plug-in.

Earlier this year I had hopes that it would be possible to have a solution 
that works out of the box. This is, however, not possible. Andrey pretty 
much detailed why. But on the upside:

1. The things a user is required to do are not complicated. No patching of 
files, just compiling or downloading files, placing ist somewhere and 
changing some lines.

2. The user can now install the plugin without needing root access.

3. The old solution for REDUCE 3.7 does not work for 3.8 anymore as far 
as I know, as the file that needs to be patched has changed meanwhile. So 
users with the new version have to upgrade to my plugin anyway (unless 
Andrey releases a version for 3.8 of the old solution). 3.7 users can 
upgrade as well to the new plugin.

If the proposed plugin is not acceptable for inclusion into TeXmacs, I can 
offer it as 3rd party plugin on my webpage instead.

> It would be good to write prominantly in README (or INSTALL or whatever) that
> 1. only reduce-3.8 is supported;

It should work for 3.7 as well.

> 2. if the user used the old reduce interface, it will suddenly stop working; 
> and what to do to make it work again

IMO the user should simply install the new solution and cease to use the 
old one. The according TeXmacs release note should encourage the REDUCE 
user to read the installation instructions.

Altogether I think we should just move to the new plugin, and see how 
people cope. If problems arise, I can always add details to the 
installation instruction, or make other changes.

Best Regards

Andreas
--
http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~seidl