On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 03:27, luisfe <lftab...@yahoo.es> wrote: > On Feb 1, 3:41 am, "Dr. David Kirkby" <david.kir...@onetel.net> wrote: > > On 01/30/11 03:27 PM, Jonathan wrote: > > Put another way, there should be a discussion about what Sage needs, how > urgent > > it is, and a plan drawn up. > > > > I thought porting Sage to Windows via Cygwin was seen as important, as it > will > > dramatically increase the number of users. But this seems to have > stalled. > > > > 2.5 years ago (June 2008 to be precise), Mike Hansen said "The first step > which > > should be done within a few weeks is to get a Cygwin version of Sage for > Windows." > > > > http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel/browse_thread/thread/80cd1f... > > > > It was several months ago William said it would not take a lot of work if > him > > and Mike worked on it. IIRC, it would a couple of weeks of work. That was > before > > William start Psage, which seemed to be quite badly timed given the > Cygwin port > > status. > > > > This Cygwin related page: > > > > http://trac.sagemath.org/sage_trac/ticket/6743 > > > > has not been updated for a year, and another one: > > > > http://trac.sagemath.org/sage_trac/wiki/CygwinPort > > > > has not been updated for 4 months. > > > I would like to introduce someone to Sage, but I'm wasting my time if she > needs > > to learn Linux, Solaris, or buy a Mac first. So I'm suggesting she use > > Mathematica on Windows. As much as I don't like that idea, I don't feel > able to > > recommend Sage. If there was a Windows port, then I might change my mind. > > +1 to this > > For me, not having sage running on windows is a show-stopper. While I > use Sage daily on my research I decided that I could not use sage on > my classes for freshmen students until it works on windows. >
I think most people agree that a Windows port is important. But it still hasn't happened. My impression is that the reasons for that are primarily that it's 1) hard, 2) not interesting to most Sage developers. There's not much that we can do about the difficulty; if we want it to happen we need to address the second point. Sage isn't a project where we can really tell people that they have to work on something. Personally, I'm completely uninterested in working on a Windows port. We've tried hiring someone to work on porting Sage to Windows, and it wasn't that successful. Just waiting until people decide to work on it isn't achieving anything. One way we've traditionally had success in gathering momentum for a project is hosting a Sage Days workshop. One focused on Windows development might achieve something, if we can find the funding for it. The only other thing I can think of would be to hire someone, IF we can find someone with the necessary qualifications and determination. I don't know how feasible that is, or whether funding for that project would be available. I have to think that the people who might have funded it may be discouraged by previous failures. Even though I don't want to work on it, I'll be a cheerleader for those of you who do. :-) David -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
