MathML etc, was: fork in Lisp? was: Maxima servermode: stability of commands....
Subject: MathML etc, was: fork in Lisp? was: Maxima servermode: stability of commands....
From: Robert Dodier
Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 09:52:08 -0600
On 5/17/06, Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> In lisp this would be (sin x). But that could convey much more
> information than MathML because of the context
> in ANSI Common Lisp. In Maxima, sin(x) implies
> a bunch of semantics, simplification rules, etc. In MathML
> it conveys essentially nothing beyond "single-argument trig function"
Transmitting MathML doesn't introduce any content or context
problems not already present in s-expressions.
If I send ((%SIN) $X), there's no guarantee that the recipient
is going to interpret it in the same way as Maxima.
XML in general is an ridiculously verbose half-baked
reimplementation of Lisp, true enough. So what?
When the goal is to get something working which can
talk to other programs, you just have to put aside your
personal feelings and get on with it.
Robert