Money is actually not always the problem. Here in Europe we currently have multiple positions advertised, including one for developing MPIR. And most of these positions are software engineer positions that will ultimately improve some technology used by Sage (or which could be used by Sage).
MPIR doesn't have really good support for processors later than about 2010 and almost nothing at all post 2012 (after Jason Moxham died). There are unconfirmed reports of libraries being developed that are up to 6 (SIX) times faster than MPIR (and probably GMP too) on modern processors. We have the money. We know what needs to be done. But we have zero applicants. There is a lack of talent, not a lack of money in some areas. The fact remains that the Sage community as a whole does not have the resources (here I mainly mean people, not money) to support some of its essential core activities. I think Sage has diversified too much and has not been able to solve many core problems: 1) How to continue maintaining dependencies after people die/move on, etc. 2) How to keep being a viable alternative after it becomes one. What analysis has been done of the weak spots of Sage? What things can't Sage do without (other than money)? What plans are in place to safeguard those investments? 3) There are many areas in which Sage has not made a dent in the dominance of Magma and similarly for Maple (I know relatively less about the other MA's). Some of these areas are highly mathematical, others are purely technological. Whilst more money would likely help in some areas. In other areas it won't make the slightest difference. Magma has very few resources currently, but is still steaming ahead (albeit into an uncertain future). The Sage project simply isn't attracting the right talent in some areas (in others it is, obviously). In some areas, our competition has all the talent. There just isn't any left to buy up. The only thing that could fix this would be training. RJF is absolutely right with his comment about marketing types. Asking for money from companies is not going to solve the problem. If we don't have any users with that kind of hardware, that is not likely a result of those companies not giving us money, nor will it likely be fixed by them doing so. They will simply see Sage as irrelevant to their marketing. In my personal opinion, Sage absolutely doesn't want to be diversifying further into dead/outdated platforms, or onto platforms where there has been historically very little expertise available for Open Source development. In lean times like this, we need to focus on safeguarding core activities and on solving core problems. I think the right question to be asking is this. What does Sage need the most right now? 1) More serious well-known mathematicians using and advocating Sage. 2) Making a dent in the dominance of competitors. 3) Support for more platforms. 4) Technological advances. 5) Development of algorithms. 6) Performance. 7) Tools and ecosystem improvements. 8) Other. I'm sure opinion will be divided, but I'd put 3 dead last. Of course native Windows support would still be nice, but that's not something that can seriously be considered in lean times like this. And I question whether it would add a single extra skilled developer to the project. Question: how can Sage hope to remain relevant if Magma and Maple are working on technological improvements that will put Sage a further factor of 6 behind in core areas, before we even start thinking about their multicore and GPU investments? Question: what is Sage's strategy going forward in light of the fact that it is not making a dent in the dominance of other platforms? I mean other than getting more money? No one is going to give money to a project that doesn't have a worked out strategy (other than getting more money), and especially not if it isn't part of their own strategy! Bill. On Sunday, 13 September 2015 15:16:13 UTC+2, Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd) wrote: > > A ticket I opened years ago about a problem on AIX, got closed recently. > It got me thinking about something whose usefulness could well extend > beyond one issue building Sage on AIX. > > I gather William is having problems getting funding from NSF and similar > places. I wonder if it's time to look at this a different way. Based on > things in the past > > 1) Sun sponsored a port to Solaris, and paid the salary of someone. > Unfortunately the computer they donated (t2) was not suited to the task, > but that is irrelevant now. We did eventually get Sage ported to Solaris. > > 2) Someone from IBM contacted William some time ago an IBM funded port to > AIX. I got involved, as I did have an AIX box, but nothing ever came of it. > > I am realistic, and don't expect many Sage developers to care less about > AIX, although I think there is at least one other that will do. IBM do have > some nice hardware. > > But how about contacting manufacturers of other devices, to sponsor either > a full Sage port, or a subset of Sage. > > Some that come to mind are > > i) Nokia > ii) Samsung > iii) Apple > iv) Microsoft > v) Oracle, with their own flavor of Linux. > vi) Cray - obviously concentrating on parallel processing > > Then there's the possibility of a mobiles apps for Android and Apple > phones that have a subset of functionality without internet access, and > better access with internet access. > > > > Dr. David Kirkby Ph.D CEng MIET > Kirkby Microwave Ltd > Registered office: Stokes Hall Lodge, Burnham Rd, Althorne, Essex, CM3 > 6DT, UK. > Registered in England and Wales, company number 08914892. > http://www.kirkbymicrowave.co.uk/ > Tel: 07910 441670 / +44 7910 441670 (0900 to 2100 GMT only please) > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. 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