On 8/12/07, Bill Page <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> | The problem I have with (2) is that I might be trading one form of
> | tyranny for another ... Certainly the Sage project's apparent ultimate
> | goal of "assimilation" of other computer algebra projects (which
> | William Stein might well deny) is a little worrisome if my goal was
> | primarily the longevity of the original Axiom source code. But the
Of course I have to write to deny that goal :-). By far, the primary
goal of SAGE is to create a viable high-quality practical alternative to
Magma, Maple, Mathematica, and Matlab as soon as possible using existing
open source components when practical. We try to avoid "assimilating"
any other projects, whenever possible, because from my point of view doing
so would just:
(a) create an increased workload, and
(b) reduce the modularity of SAGE, in some social sense. E.g., I
think it is
very good that GAP and PARI/GP are completely separate
projects from SAGE,
since they can move forward in ways we would never think of going with
SAGE, and yet SAGE still directly benefits and moves forward in those
ways.
My primary desire with all open source math software projects is that they be
as healthy as possible. The better open source math software does, the
more of a chance SAGE has to attain its primary goal as listed above.
In summary, SAGE is no more about assimilating other computer algebra systems,
than Debian Linux is about assimilating software projects like
X-windows, Vim, etc.
But like Debian, SAGE directly benefits from the success of open
source mathematics
software in general. This was the motivation for David Joyner and I offer to
provide support of various forms to a possible Axiom fork. I
actually think the
direction Waldek is pushing FriCAS so far is *excellent* from our
point of view -- he
is making it much easier to distribute and build FriCAS, which will make it very
suitable for SAGE users. At the same time, it's a clear separate
project. That's
the optimal situation from my point of view. And Waldek is really
really talented
at exactly the problem of improving the build and distribution system.
-- William
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