Dear Dr. Dodier,
The tolerance of "such gross deficiencies" to which I alluded
is the ready acceptance of the solecism "loose" for "lose". Of
flaws in programming for symbolic computation, some are inevitable,
even in programs that are marketed commercially, but naturally a
user or prospective user hopes and expects maximal effort to be expended
to prevent such flaws from being present in a released version, through
thorough testing: this process is called 'quality control'. Some
such flaws, however, escape detection before release, no matter how
apparently thorough the testing. For that solecism there is no such
excuse, and for a notice that must appear whenever any user anywhere
prepares to terminate a session of Maxima without having saved the content
to persist into a released version of that software demonstrates slipshod
performance and scrutiny of those persons, such as yourself, who take the
ultimate decision, and have the responsibility, to authorize such a release.
Perhaps you might consider simply eradicating that particular
solecism, and preferably also the plotting problem, in the software
that is currently offered for download. Then I shall gratefully be able
to obtain that corrected version and to continue in my proposed action to
recommend Maxima as a viable alternative to commercial software, without
shamefully apologising for proffering an incontestably shoddy product.
The fact that you, or others contributing to the development of
Maxima, are not being paid explicitly by the prospective users is
irrelevant; if you were not undertaking such activity, you should
presumably be undertaking alternative scholarly or constructive
academic activity, for which such inadequate control of quality would be
equally reprehensible.
The illiterate and inarticulate Texan to whom I alluded in my initial
message and to whom I attributed much harm in the world was certainly not
the late Professor William Schelter, whose great efforts to make Maxima
generally available we can all applaud, but a certain head of government
whom I need not specify further.
Yours sincerely,
John Ogilvie
On Mon, 10 Sep 2007, Robert Dodier wrote:
> On 9/10/07, John Ogilvie <ogilvie at cecm.sfu.ca> wrote:
>
>> I was preparing to make a presentation to a Dean of Science about
>> improving the effectiveness of teaching mathematics to students of science
>> and engineering, for whom mathematics is a tool not a career;
>
> To be honest I'm grateful that you went so far as to work
> on a presentation to the dean. I'm sorry it didn't turn out well
> for you. All I can say is that we're still working on Maxima.
> Take a look at the bug list at the project web site --- there are
> hundreds of bugs listed there. Yet we are making steady progress.
>
>> It is disgraceful, anti-intellectual and anti-academic of Robert
>> Dodier to tolerate such gross deficiencies. How can somebody with such
>> a mentality justify his presence in an institution of so called higher
>> education and learning?
>
> Incidentally I did find a correction for the erf bug.
>
> Robert Dodier
>