--- Wolfgang Jenkner <wjenkner@inode.at> wrote:
>
> The FAQ (http://maxima.sourceforge.net/faq/faq.html) states (Q 2.2)
>
> The original Maxima Reference Manual by William Schelter is no
> longer
> maintained. [...]
>
> and http://maxima.sourceforge.net/docs.shtml says
>
> [...] we recommend the updated [manual] that has been
> significantly
> enhanced by Mike Clarkson.
>
> The former assertion does not reflect the current state of CVS
> Maxima: The reference manual has been updated several times and
> sometimes in quite a substantial way (for example, R. Toy has
> documented there his implementation of elliptic functions). Also, a
> substantial part of the Maxima help system (the DESCRIBE command)
> relies on this manual.
OK, Judah :-). Time to update the FAQ.
> No doubt any recommendation would be well-founded on the manual's own
> merits but there remain certain obstacles: The (texinfo?) source of
> the html files doesn't seem to be generally available and the
> copyright notice on Clarkson's manual does not say that his work can
> be freely used. As long as I intend to contribute to Schelter's
> reference manual this uncertainty prevents me from even reading
> Clarkson's manual (and maybe stealing some ideas, consciously or
> not).
Clarkson's manual I don't have a lot of details on as far as licensing
goes. I've tried to contact him but with no results. Does anyone know
how to reach him?
> So the FAQ begs the important question: Is it possible to merge the
> texinfo sources of the two manuals under the GPL or GFDL?
It would need to be under GPL (and in any case I have serious
reservations about the GFDL.) If we can get ahold of him and OK this I
think a merger is the way to go.
CY
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com