On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 7:47 AM, David Kirkby <[email protected]>wrote:
> On 28 December 2012 14:53, Emmanuel Charpentier > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Note to (potential) users of the sage interface to Mathematica : > something > > seems to have changed in Mathematica version 9 interface with "the rest > of > > the world". > > > > Setup(s) : Debian wheezy with self-compiled sage v 5.4.1 then v 5.5, > > Mathematica Linux 64 bits V8 then V9. > > (1) sage v 5.4 <--> Mathematica V8 : OK > > (2)sage v 5.5 <--> Mathematica V9 : doesn't work. Sage reports to be > "unable > > to start Mathematica". However, Mathematica works both from the command > line > > (math) or from the GUI (mathematica). > > (3) sage v 5.5 <--> Mathematica V8 : OK again. > > > > I've also seen (1) and (3) on a smallish 32 bit machine (Again, debian > > wheezy + self-compiled sage (this was slooow..)). > > > > Shouldn't I open a ticket on this ? > > It would be best to open a ticket. > > > Hints on further relevant information ? > > IMHO, the way Sage calls Mathematica is not optimal. I recall opening > a ticket before, when Sage would not work with my version of > Mathematica. It turns out that the optional interfaces like > Mathematica were not tested regularly - I don't know if that has > changed. > > If you look at this post a month or so by me: > > > https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!searchin/sage-devel/mathematica$20kirkby/sage-devel/tF5QApfHUHE/3FRgjYrg1QsJ > > you will see I had intended emailing something to the FSF and Wolfram > Research to try to get a better way of interfacing to Mathematica. > What responses were received from Sage developers, were negative, so I > never bothered emailing Wolfram Research or the FSF. > > Technically the best way to produce an interface will be using the > MathLink protocol in Mathematica. The issue is the license condictions > > of this. It can be used free for commerical use, but not for > commerical use. This conflicts with the GPL, though I'm not convinced > I disagree. The only reason Sage doesn't have an interface to Mathematica written using the MathLink protocol is that nobody has got around to writting such an interface. I would like to strongly encourage people to write one. As long as we *only* implement something in Sage that speaks the Mathlink *protocol*, there are no GPL issues here, since there is no binary linking between Sage and any Mathematica code. You can implement from scratch absolutely any TCP protocol you want in a GPL'd program. (I'm not talking about writing a Cython binding to a Wolfram library, but writing an implementation of the protocol directly in Python.) -- William > that could not be circulated if the interface was an optional > component, that did not by default link to the Mathematica libraries. > > There is an open-source (GPL) program called 'jmath' > > http://robotics.caltech.edu/~radford/jmath/ > > which links to Mathematica in a way that is technially better. Exactly > what the legal situation of that is, I don't know, and if you read the > authors comments, he had conflicting answers from different sources. > That was why I intended emailing the FSF and Wolfram Research. But as > I say, all comments were negative. > > Dave > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "sage-support" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support?hl=en. > > > -- William Stein Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-support" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-support?hl=en.
