On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 8:35 AM, mabshoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > On Apr 10, 4:40 pm, "William Stein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > <SNIP> > > > We should make Sage as easy or easier to install than > > any of Mathematica, Maple, Matlab, or Magma. > > I see no reason to compromise on this at all, since the > > goal is to provide a viable alternative to Mathematica, > > Maple, Matlab, and Magma. Part of this is that Sage must be > > as easy to install as those programs. > > Sage *is* easy to install provided one is capable of reading and > following README.txt.
I think the most productive definition of "easy" to to have potential Sage users -- ranging from students to college professors to professionals -- test out the process and report their experiences. If they say it is "easy", then it is easy. If they say it isn't, then it isn't. Simple as that. We've done that a lot recently at UW, and the conclusion is that we have room to improve. Regarding: > > We should make Sage as easy or easier to install than > > any of Mathematica, Maple, Matlab, or Magma. > This is very reasonable IMO. > Would it be feasible and reasonable to provide several ways of > installations, with brief comments which one should be chosen? That is feasible. Unfortunately having "several ways of installation" can be the opposite of easy... so let's be careful. -- William > All the points about computer literacy aside > [insert "when I was young I had to walk both ways to school uphill" > rant] I believe that this is a sad, sad world when somebody who is > attempting to get a college education is incapable of following a > simple README.txt. And I am not asking people to do anything hard > here, i.e. Robert's argument that people should learn mathematics > instead of CS skills does not reflect reality, but to follow an url, > download a 1MB binary and install it. > > Other people in IRC have pointed out that my expectations of the > average college student seem rather high and not grounded in reality, > so I have no intention of opposing the switch to zip files for the > vmware image. But it is my understanding the people at a University > are supposed to acquire the skills to solve problems, i.e. become > capable to approach a problem they have never solved and solve it by > thinking about it. I don't want to sound like an elitist jerk [too > late I guess], but if you are foiled by a 7zip archive maybe we have a > case of PEBKAC :) [look it up if you don't know what that is ;)] > > <SNIP> > > -- William > > Cheers, > > Michael > > > > > -- William Stein Associate Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
