Stephen Forrest wrote: > On Nov 19, 2007 11:59 AM, William Stein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [...] >> Interestingly, this link says "Printing the code in this way does not >> include any of the programmer's comments. If you want a separate copy >> of the library source code, with comments, it is available from the >> distributors for a set price. Some Maple procedures are coded >> completely within the kernel. Their code is not available. If you try >> to print them you see the following type of special procedure body." >> >> So you have to pay extra for the comments! Wow. That's truly bizarre. > > Hmm, I am a former Maplesoft employee, and I have never, ever heard of > the source code being available for reading for an extra price. I am > not inclined to believe this remark. > > The fact that comments aren't available in the first place is not > especially surprising: Maple is an interpreted language language like > any other, and comments are the first thing to be stripped out whole > parsing. Java bytecode doesn't have comments either :). > > Furthermore, with regard to the comment by Jason Grout that the use of > the introspection tools was "encouraged by the Maple people in the > above posts.", you should understand that the Maple Primes posts to > which those links refer were made by various Maple enthusiasts > unaffiliated with Maplesoft (albeit on a site run by Maplesoft). You > shouldn't read anything about Maplesoft's position from them.
Thanks for the clarification on all points. The faq entry that I posted and William commented on above is not on the official Maple website and seems to be about MapleV. The corresponding official faq entry I posted in a later post did not include the comment, so I'm inclined to agree with you that the "source code for more money" either is not true or is a outdated comment---you speak with more authority than the outdated, unofficial faq entry :). I didn't post it for the "source for money" part, but for the techniques of exposing the source code. My comment about using the supplied functions (like showstat) was encouraged when examining source code stemmed from a comment in the second link by Dave Linder (signed as a "Team Lead" from Maplesoft) discussing seeing the source code to functions. Thanks for the clarification that the comment should not be construed as implying anything about Maplesoft's position. -Jason --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://sage.scipy.org/sage/ and http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
