Hi,
I would like to make several proposals for the Maxima project:
1) We have (a) a project coordinator, (b) a content referee and (c) an
infrastructure referee. The referees would have final say on what goes
into CVS, but would not necessarily be the ones doing the work.
2) I volunteer to be project coordinator and infrastructure referee. I
am actually doing infrastructure work right now and intend to continue
to do so. My real interests lie in the content, but I think the current
infrastructure needs to be improved to the point where it no longer gets
in the way of the content.
3) I nominate Richard Fateman to be content referee.
4) The the next steps in the Maxima project should be as follows:
a) Maxima CVS moves to sourceforge.
b) Call the current version Maxima 5.6 Beta. Incorporate whatever
hacks/bug fixes people have been sending to the mailing list since
Schelter passed away. Disallow new features.
c) There is no 5.6 Final release.
d) Incorporate new build system when I am done with it. Clean up
package. Call the new version Maxima 5.9. The purpose of this release is
to act as a beta release for the first major release of the new Maxima
project, 6.0. Focus for 5.9 should be the shift to parity among ANSI
Common Lisp implementations.
e) Bang on bug fixes in Maxima 5.9 series. Add new tests. Continue to
disallow new features. Add new Maxima documentation.
f) Release Maxima 6.0 when we are satisfied that it is clean and stable.
g) Create Maxima 6.1 branch for new features. Keep stable 6.0 branch
with bug fixes only.
h) Attempt to get better publicity for Maxima when it reaches 6.0.
--Jim