At the risk of pointing out the obvious, these
recycled descriptions were never very well written. Most
striking is the consistent use of the passive voice.
Compare this line from Mathematica
"When you use either >> or >>> to write expressions to
files, the expressions are usually given in .<format>.. so that
you can read them back."
vs maxima's
"STRINGOUT(args)
will output an expression to a file in a linear format. Such files are
then used by the BATCH or DEMO commands. "
Nevertheless, it's great to have them available.
RJF
C Y wrote:
> --- Mike Clarkson <support@internetdiscovery.com> wrote:
>
>>I've put a copy of a DOE-Maxima reference manual that I did
>>years ago up on
>>
>> http://starship.python.net/crew/mike/maxima
>>
>>Could those who are knowledgable about the Maxima documentation
>>give me some feedback on it.
>>
>
> In a word - Wow. You have done some very nice work here.
>
>
>>It is fairly compete, and has the
>>advantage of being cross-referenced and multiply indexed.
>>It was laboriously compiled from the descrips files and the
>>usage files, and is set in a form of LaTeX that supports dvi, pdf
>>html and info. It may serve as a better starting point than the
>>current texinfo version.
>>
>
> We need several opinions on this one - my initial impression is that
> this is worth serious consideration, but the problem is likely to be
> the describe format itself - it would be much better if we were able to
> maintain only one set of files for all the formats. Mike, would it be
> possible for you to send me the source code so I can look it over? And
> I'll also print out a copy to read over this weekend.
>
> Also, does anyone have a good working knowledge of how maxima's
> describe command actually works? I've been putting off dealing with
> that, but sooner or later we will have to come to grips with it.
>
>
>>Does anyone have the old example files (example/*.xmp)? My manual
>>hyperlinks to these files, but I can't find a copy on my disks.
>>If you have them, would you mind sending them as a tar by email?
>>
>
> I don't know where these would be, unless they are hidden deep in cvs
> somewhere. Anyone?
>
> CY
>
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