On 6/25/07, Gabriel Dos Reis wrote:
... I do not believe your posting was a waste -- although a patch to Axiom with equialvent size would have been nice :-) :-) ...
Thank you for comments and I agree with your sentiment above.
Bill Page wrote: | Since I have been promoting the autoconf style of build process for | Axiom to Tim for several years, Tim asked me why I did not do this | work myself. I replied that I was very glad when someone came along | (Gaby) who was motivated and obviously knew enough about how to do it | - much more than me! The situation is that really I do not want to be | doing this kind of development. Since I am not very good at it, it | wastes my time and there is never enough time. I would very much | prefer to be an Axiom user/developer who discusses mathematics and | writes new algebra code for example in category theory and in | applications to physics. But here I have been stuck for nearly 5 years | now - just getting to the point where this is becoming possible. I very much disagree with that view. I too would very much perfer to be an Axiom user/developer who discusses mathematics and write algebra code for example in category theory and applications to various fields of computational science. However, I also realize that I cannot just wish someone else come and does the dirty job for me so that I can theorize without getting my hands dirt. I'm not a developer. I'm a mathematician. I earned my degree in Differential Geometry. I'm highly interested in computational mathematics. Since *I need tools* and they are lacking, I have to build them. That is why I have my hands dirt with C++, GCC, Axiom, etc.
Your point well taken. I realize that what you say is completely true and applies to many other people on this list. I agree that the attitude that I displayed in my comment above is *not* a productive one. Instead I should point out that I have learned a lot about how to use autoconf from your work on build-improvements. It is not my intention to simply "just wish that someone else come and does the dirty job for me" - certainly not at the expense of their own time which they really wish to devote to something else. Perhaps I can make some significant contribution in the future. In the mean time I am at least attempting to test these changes as widely and as often as possible.
... | > > > Bill Page wrote: | > > > (See for example recent revisions submitted by Gaby which he asked | > > > to revert pending something similar to be done by Tim.) | > Bill Page wrote: | I think Tim's reply to this is very important. | | He said that he had planned to work with the change that Gaby had | submitted and the fact that Gaby later withdrew it was *not* based | on his request. That is true: Tim never asked me to back off the change I made. The complain came from more vocal people who did not take any step in solving the problem I was attempting to solve. I guess solving the problem they thought I erroneously solved would have been against the law. | (Check the mailing list). He said that I should get your facts | straight when you are making disparaging remarks about him in public. Is "you" referring to me (Gaby)?
No sorry, that is my grammatical error. I should have written: He (Tim) said that *I* (Bill) should get my facts straight when I am making disparaging remarks about him in public.
Bill Page wrote: | I am very sorry about this. I do hereby state publicly that I was | wrong about that. I also get the impression that there were more | people than me who may have gotten the wrong impression about that | interchange so I am glad that Tim has set the record straight. ...
Regards, Bill Page. _______________________________________________ Axiom-developer mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer
