[Axiom-mail] Axiom Users, Axiom Programmers and Axiom Developers

[Page, Bill]

Axiom *,

Something that probably should have been obvious caught me
by surprize today.

I have been working Axiom developer system configurations
for so long now that I had forgotten to make a distinction
between the types of users and the software that they need
to install. This is especially obvious on Windows because,
unlike linux, Windows is very often configured without
any development tools whatever. Only end-users application
programs might installed and even then these can often be
restricted to support an even more limited set of functions
for certain users. That is really what this message is
about. But first let me tell you the story...

*[This is Microsoft's World and while working intensively
with open source and linux we might sometimes forget what
it is like for the other 90% of the world ... :]*


Users, Programmers and Developers

  Anyway, this afternoon I installed Axiom for Windows

http://page.axiom-developer.org/axiom-windows-0.1.3.exe

on an entirely new machine with *no* other software installed
except the basic operating system (Windows 2000). Now that
we know about the problem of paths with spaces, I also opted
to override the default and install Axiom into the directory::

  c:\axiom

instead of::

  c:\Program Files\axiom

which is the default.

Then I proceeded to test Axiom in the usual way by running
a few selected input files. Everything seemed fine.

Finally since we have been talking about compiling spad
files today, I also tried to compile a src/algebra file.
I was very surprized when Axiom when all the way through
the spad compile and then told me (well GCL told me, really)
that it could not find `gcc'!

Then after I thought about it for a while I realized that
GCL really does depend on gcc and that gcc is *not* included
in the version of GCL that is installed with the Axiom
build. Well, of course not, right? <embarrassment> For
over more than a month now, a total of nearly 1,000 users
have downloaded the pre-release versions of axiom-windows
and it did not occur to me that they would not be able to
compile a spad file! sheesh. That seemed so odd to me since
I have been doing exactly that several times a day over
that same time, experimenting and testing new versions.
But then, I *do* have the full developer environment
installed.

So, who are all these people who are apparently quite
satisfied playing with and using this version of Axiom
that only includes about 1/2 of what Axiom can do?
Well, *Axiom Users* I guess. But certainly not Axiom
Programmers in the natural sense of the word because
they (probably) don't even have the pieces installed
that they would need to compile a program. An Axiom
end User then is someone who is satisfied with just
the contents of the mnt directory. They can do all
the calculations that Axiom is pre-programmed to do
and they can even define long calculations including
function definitions and the kind of program control
that can be written in input files, but then can *not*
compile new library files.

What besides the contents of the mnt directory is
required before one can compile library files? Well,
just the C compiler, of course. On windows the
minimum additional software that has to be installed
is called MinGW ( http://www.mingw.org/ ) and consists
of the "mingw-runtime, w32api, binutils and gcc tarball
packages" from ( http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml ):

http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/mingw-runtime-3.5.tar.gz?download

http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/w32api-3.2.tar.gz?download

http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/binutils-2.15.91-20040904-1.tar.gz?download

http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/gcc-core-3.4.2-20040916-1.tar.gz?download

You need to download each of these files and unzip them
(using a Windows shareware (evaluation version) program
like WinZip http://www.winzip.com/ http://www.7-zip.org/
or other free equivalent will do) directly into the::

  mnt/windows

directory, the root of your Axiom installation. This is
the most convenient place because the Axiom installation
has already added this location to the path that allows
your system to find and execute this programs.

FINALLY, there is one more thing that you need add. One of
the unix compatibility programs called rm.exe is missing
from::

  mnt/windows/bin

Click on

http://page.axiom-developer.org/rm.exe

and choose "Save As". Locate the `mnt\windows\bin'
directory and click Save.

Now at last you have a Windows Axiom Programmer's system
configuration. You will be able to create, modify and
compile spad files to create your own customized mathematical
library.

When you create .spad files, be sure to save them in
path that does not include spaces. This means that you
can not use `My Documents' which is (more or less) the
Windows default location. If you like, you can create
a directory called `local' within your Axiom base
installation directory. For example::

  c:\test\local

Save your files there. In Axiom you should change the
default directory to `local' so that you can easily
compile files like this::

  )cd ../..
  )cd local
  )co yourfile.spad

and::

  )library yourfile.spad

to load a file compiled during a previous session.

**Enjoy!**

In the next pre-release of Axiom for Windows I think it
would be a good idea if we provided at least the above
end User's and the larger Programmer's configurations in
two complete downloads and self-install files. I have
checked the licenses for MinGW and I am quite sure that
including the run-time and minimal compiler programs in
the Axiom install is allowed by the developers. It is
however very clearly a GPL license.

In fact, you should expect that over the next few months
many aspects of the Axiom installation will become easier
and more complete. Stay tuned to the MathAction website:

http://page.axiom-developer.org

or this email list for more up to date information!

---------

Lastly, I will define Axiom Developers as those masochists
who are willing to spend their time configuring and testing
new complete releases of Axiom for others. The development
environment of this on Windows is everything the Programmers
have plus the MSYS developer's tools. See
( http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml ) for the following files:

http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/MSYS-1.0.8.exe?download

http://prdownloads.sf.net/mingw/msysDTK-1.0.1.exe?download

Download these self-install files and then run them to
create a programming environment under windows that is
in many ways like linux (however, more minimal :). When
you install these programs, make sure to specify that you
also have MingGW installed.

And one last thing. Before you can run::

  .\configure
  make

You should also have the tla arch program installed so
that you can download the Axiom source files and you will
be able to upload your patches and new features. To get
tla click

http://download.sipsolutions.de/tla-setup.exe

Download and run this program to install tla. Once this is
installed, you will be able to run tla from inside MSYS or
from tla's own special command line shell. The rest of
the instructions for developers is as

http://arch.axiom-developer.org

--------

As usual, this is the right place to ask quesitions. We
have a large and growing number of people who will be
happy to answer your questions.

Regards,
Bill Page.