--- Raymond Toy <toy@rtp.ericsson.se> wrote:
>
> It's great that maxima is now on sourceforge so that the various
> patches can get added.
>
> However, what are the goals of maxima-pre59? I know that a better
> build process is one major goal. What are the other goals?
Jim's original proposal had this outline:
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.
If i read this correctly, what he is saying (and I think it's a sound
idea) is to focus on three thing right now - the new build system,
trying to organize and clean up the structure and packages, and
compiling on different Lisps. I'm not sure where the numerical code
falls in that, but at a guess that's probably a 6.1 feature.
Suggestions I would have for 5.9:
Incorporate all the (good) fixes that have been sent in to the list
over the past year or so which haven't already been included.
Go through all the packages contained in places like share, share1,
share2, etc. and figure out what they all do and why they are there.
Also, which ones should be included, with an expectation that they be
usable, and which need to be pulled until more extensive work is done.
Also, if possible, duplication should be minimized to avoid confusion
(the two vector packages is a good example - if I recall correctly each
has bugs/features the other lacks, and it would make more sense to
either combine them or if there is a definite reason for having two
make it clear why there are two and what each does.)
Try to recreate the process by which the original maxima-5.5 binary for
Windows was created, or come up with another process that works, and be
able to release a 5.9 version for Windows.
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