On Friday, February 7, 2014 9:17:23 PM UTC-8, kcrisman wrote: > > So, in the Sage/GAP/etc. urban legend, some pathetic PhD student proves a > theorem, and then upon graduating can't afford the software it's > implemented in. > Doesn't make sense to me. "Implement a theorem"? A theorem is a (true) statement. Sometimes it is accompanied by a proof that it is true.
Are you saying the proof involves the use of a computer program in some way, and the student can't afford to buy the computer program? That's not a particular disadvantage, proof-of-this-theorem-wise. The theorem has presumably been proven (by the pathetic PhD student). Why should he/she need to prove it again? Now if you said, a pathetic PhD student develops an algorithm, ... that makes some sense. There are many algorithms that build upon previously written algorithms, and some of those may be proprietary. You may find that to be disadvantageous. Eh. The pathetic student may buy a ticket on an airplane to go to a meeting where he/she presents the theorem. You don't expect the student to own the airplane. > Nice argument for open source. I have no reason to disbelieve it, and > have seen very similar quotes attributed to someone from the GAP project. > But in the spirit of a Russian Olympics... trust but verify. > The possibility that GAP is needed to run an algorithm is an argument in favor of GAP. That is, GAP provides an apparently unique capability -- one that is required, at least at the moment -- to do something of interest. Perhaps you are saying something rather different. Like you are unhappy that the (first ?) proof of a particular theorem used a program that is not free? Well, I am unhappy that my home internet access is not free. So? > I'm giving a (non-technical, indeed non-mathematical) talk tomorrow where > I'd like to be able to have something a bit more stable on this. So if > anyone can point me to something more concrete along these lines, I'd be > grateful. > > Thanks, > - kcrisman > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
