Is Maxima modular?...(and/or How learn source code?...)

--- Stavros Macrakis <stavros.macrakis@verizon.net> wrote:
> > If you took initiative to study and learn the LISP code on
> > your own then you deserve to be a member of the Maxima dev team.
> 
> Chris,
> 
> What I didn't say (I think others on the list already know it) was
> that a lot of that code reading etc. happened in 1971-77, when I was
> fortunate to be a very junior member of the original Macsyma
> development team.  That I could figure out the Macsyma code when I
was 
> 15 gives me some confidence that others will, too.  Of course, I did 
> have the benefit of the guidance of more senior members of the team, 
> like Rich Fateman.  Surprisingly, even after 25 years away from the 
> code (Maclisp-only at that point), I still find it looks familiar.  
> That said, there are large swathes of the code that I didn't know 
> before and which I am learning now by reading and experimenting.

Chris, my advice would be, just as a way to start, creating
system/programmer documentation for Maxima is a good way to go.  That
type of work is very useful for the project, and also gets you learning
the structure of the code.

> > My tendency would be to start all over and write a beautiful
> > commented object oriented CA from scratch
> 
> That's precisely what other groups have done: Axiom, for example,
> which is now open source.  Since Axiom has not yet been released, 
> though, I can't say what its advantages and disadvantages are.  I do 
> know that Maxima has benefitted from years of practical experience, 
> and tends to be very pragmatic.

If you do want to start over, you might take a look at Yacas.  Yacas is
much less powerful than Maxima, but from what I've heard it is cleanly
written.  It's a new effort, so if you want to start from scratch that
might be a good framework.

CY

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