Subject: Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: FeynCalc -> MAXIMA
From: Bob McElrath
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 14:02:38 -0700
Stavros Macrakis [stavros.macrakis@verizon.net] wrote:
> > We need to keep the theory and the code together and have
> > each one explain the other. How else can you show that the
> > code does what it is intended to do?
>
> That is a very hard problem in general.
Test cases.
While this does not *prove* the correctness of the code in a
mathematical sense, it does in a monte-carlo sense. I note that both
maxima and axiom have test suites.
I do not think new mathematical code or subsystems should be accepted
unless they are accompanied by a thorough test suite.
--
Cheers,
Bob McElrath [Univ. of California at Davis, Department of Physics]
=20
"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely
rearranging their prejudices." -- William James