On 25 Feb 2007 18:34:38 +0100, Martin Rubey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Axiom is not part of SAGE, so the fact they are implemented in Axiom doesn't
> > imply that one should not implement them in SAGE.
>
> OK, sorry, I was misinformed. I once was told that SAGE aims at connecting
> different CAS and special purpose packages, in order not to reinvent the
> wheel. Sorry about my confusion.
It does do that, and there is a SAGE <--> Axiom interface, so that SAGE can use
Axiom if axiom is installed on a user's computer. SAGE is three things:
1) A complete self contained distribution of free open source math
and other special-purpose software for Linux, OS X, MS Windows,
and Solaris.
2) A new library of functionality to smoothly tie together 1 and to
fill in the many gaps in functionality.
3) Interfaces to most other mathematical software systems (both free
and commercial), so it is easy to use them all together.
The main goal is to accomplish 1-3 in order to (quickly) create a system
that is a serious viable alternative to the closed source non-free
math software packages. We are still far from accomplishing this
extremely difficult goal.
In SAGE development we "reinvent the wheel" only when it is necessary
in order to accomplish the goals listed above.
Axiom's relationship to SAGE, with respect to 1-3 above is as follows:
(1) Not distributed with SAGE, and not a requirement for using SAGE
-- Axiom is not cross platform enough, given our specific platform
requirements. For example, Axiom doesn't officially support OS X yet.
Also, there seem to be longstanding licensing issues with Aldor.
(2) The "new library" for SAGE is written in Python and C/C++, so
Axiom plays a roll insofar as we can look at Axiom code and learn from
it. I hope this happens with the combinatorics code that has sparked
this discussion. But this library can't depend too much on Axiom,
because of (1).
(3) There is a nice Axiom <--> SAGE interface already, which Bill
Page wrote, and which SAGE users often use to access axiom
functionality from SAGE.
William
-- William
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