Hello,
I have some ideas that I invite comments on.
1. I don't know how many developers of maxima there are at present. From
the mailing list I expect that there not more than 20 or 30.
2. I don't know the ages of the various developers, but if one wants to
insure continued development for the long term, it is important to bring
in young people and get them started on the development.
This involves a lot of expertise, of course-lisp, tcl-tk,
mathematical knowledge, etc. Obviously, different parts of the package
depend on very different kinds of expertise.
3. Even with the required expertise, one does not want to re-invent the
wheel. Some of the source files are very complex, and it takes
considerable time for even expert programmers to understand them.
Of course, some people have already spent much time understanding and
improving certain parts of the program.
In addition to making continued improvement, bug-fixes, etc., I think
it is important to set up some way to train new people to come in and
help with the development.
So, this is a suggestion that people take some time away from
development to document the files which already exist. The
documentation could even be in the source files themselves.
One standard answer is: "Ok, please feel free to contribute to this.
It will be appreciated."
This is certainly one reasonable answer from busy people. But I think
it is much like asking others to spend the same amount of time on this
or that project, maybe more, than people have already done.
It is a recipe for slow development.
It would be much healthier for developers so inclined to add descriptive
comments on routines "as they do the development."
Perhaps I am biased, but in my profession (university teaching and
research), we are forced to do this in explaining various things to a
new crop of people on a regulat basis. Sometimes it is painful,
sometimes boring, but the benefits certainly appear when even a few of
the recipients of the effort extend and improve the current status of
things.
Comments ?
-sen