William Stein wrote: > On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 3:19 PM, Jaap Spies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> root wrote: >> > I WANT Sage to live. I want it to succeed. I want it to be the >> > lingua-franca of the business so that we can all post our results >> > "in Sage" at conferences. I want to be able to "drag and drop" >> > your publication onto my system and have your code "just work", >> > your documentation "just connect". I want to be able to not only >> > use what you write, but to understand it so I can use it effectively. >> > I want MMA and Maple users to "write for Sage" instead. >> > >> >> Yes! You got it. >> >> >> > My problem is that I don't see the fundamental difference between >> > Sage and any other system that I've touched in the past. And I don't >> > want this whole generation of mathematicians to "do it all over again" >> > without some fundamental gain. >> >> The fundamental difference is Python and William! And 100+ developers >> who want Sage to succeed. >> >> >> I may be wrong that the literate >> > documentation is the key. And I admit I'm a knuth-boy fanatic about it. >> >> I once believed in Literate Programming, but I lost faith. It is just >> unpractical like a Procrustes bed. >> > > For those not as familiar with Greek literature as Jaap, > I found this on the 'net: > "Procrustes was the ancient champion of enforced conformity. In Greek > antiquity he was a legendary highwayman who lived in Attica. He had an > iron bed which he regarded as the standard of length. Because it just > fit him, he concluded that every one should fit it. He stopped every > traveler and tied him to the bed. If the person happened to be too > short, Procrustes stretched him until he attained the correct length; > if he happened to be too long, his legs were cut off until he met the > proper requirement. Thus was everyone made identical in size." > > I also found this from Knuth (who introduced LP): "Literate > programming is a very personal thing. I think it's terrific, but that > might well be because I'm a very strange person. [...] I don't believe > in forcing ideas on anybody. If literate programming isn't your style, > please forget it and do what you like. If nobody likes it but me, let > it die." > > Fortunately, Knuth himself is not like Procrustes. >
Happy us! We can use the good stuff from Knuth! Jaap > -- William > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
