[Gcl-devel] 2.6.7 [was Re: [Axiom-developer] Tiddly Axiom Wiki]

[Camm Maguire]

Greetings!

"Page, Bill" <address@hidden> writes:

> Bob,
> 
> On Monday, June 27, 2005 7:45 AM you wrote:
> 
> > I have gotten a preliminary *local* web-browser interface for
> > Axiom working.  It uses pipes for communication.  Get it here:
> >    http://bob.mcelrath.org/moz-axiom.tar.gz
> > Un tar it, change to the moz-axiom directory that will be created,
> > and run: ./fifo-axiom
> 
> Tres neat! I like it. I like it a lot! It's already starting
> to look like my new preferred Axiom user interface, besides
> MathAction, that is ...
> 

Thanks for your work!  Will try to find time to check it out soon.  In
general, please everyone accept my apologies regarding my absense in
this thread.  I'm tied down this summer with making the gcl ansi image
compliant, which I think will serve us all well in the long term.

My $0.02 regarding UI for browsing and graphics:

1) I agree with Martin, we need an emacs interface option too.(!)  It
   is the only tool in which I can get any real work done.

2) Please make sure we centralize on freely available (as in free
   software, 'libre', not beer), widely distributed, maximally
   portable, longstanding and lightweight solutions.  I have my own
   questions regarding jsmath, mathml, and the like, mostly stemming
   from my ignorance of them, and general suspicion of anything which
   might make us depend on java (do these?).  I don't think anything
   can match TeX in scientific user mindshare.  To the extent we can
   lever this avenue for result presentation, I think we'll be set for
   life.  I realize however that this might not be a total solution.

3) I defer whole heartedly to the opinions of you wonderful souls who
   are actually doing the work!  Please consider the maintainability
   of the solution by others should you ever be separated from the
   project. 

> But really the right and portable way to do this would be via
> sockets and HTTP. Now that the AxiomUI project is off to a
> running start, I think it would be a good idea to move Axiom
> to the new version of GCL (currently Version_2_6_7pre) that
> does sockets on Windows properly. Camm asked last week if we
> thought he should just commit GCL 2.6.7 to CVS. He had been
> waiting to see if more work could be done on the TK graphics
> under Windows, but that looks unlikely now, and mostly no
> longer relevant (for AxiomUI at least). So I think you should
> go ahead and freeze GCL 2.6.7, Camm and we will move Axiom to
> GCL 2.6.7 on both Linux and Windows.
> 
> Then we can start to use GCL with sockets they way this is
> supposed to work.

Tim, are you no longer interested in gcl-tk?

Mike, any news on this front?  Will be replying separately to your
other email, but in general I think that if this is close, making this
a portable option on Windows for 2.6.7 is more important than working
on 2.7.0 at this burning point in time, as the latter is in such a
state of flux.  I would appreciate, however, as 2.7 develops, if you
could scan over the commit logs and give me a notice if you see
anything being put in place which you know will give us troubles later
on in Windows.  I know of no such development at this point, save that
which can be addressed by some edits to configure.in.

If Tim doesn't need gcl-tk and wants the sockets, or if Mike states
that gcl-tk is far off on Windows in any case, please both so state,
and I'll test and tag the 2.6.7pre branch for release.  There is one
other thing which should have gone in but I don't have time for right
now -- we need to buld xgcl as a loadable module by default where
possible for people who need it at the University of Texas.

Mike, if and when we release 2.6.7, then any help you can lend on the
ansi front would be most appreciated.

Take care,

-- 
Camm Maguire                                            address@hidden
==========================================================================
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah