On Fri, 2011-07-15 at 07:07 -0700, Richard Fateman wrote:
> Both, I think. The idea that Python is suitable for a front end to
> computer algebra is hard to entirely endorse,
> considering that after boasting about it, they then find it unsuitable
> themselves without a preprocessor
> to handle (as I recall) the fact that integers and arbitrary-precision
> integers are different types. Maybe
> some other things.
As a recent "refugee" from Sage, I far prefer the Maxima language for a
front end to Python. Don't get me wrong, Python is a great language for
some applications, this just doesn't happen to be one of them!
>
> > Typically math systems
> > (symbolic and numerical alike) have a user language which is
> > just cobbled together as an afterthought. Python has, at least,
> > the advantage of being more nearly complete and more
> > carefully designed.
> I think that evaluating Python as a language to convey essentially all
> of mathematics, Python
> is going to appear cobbled together. Also note that Python has changed
> from time to time in
> fairly significant ways.
>
It has also changed relatively quickly and different platforms don't
always keep up with each other; different Linux distributions often have
a slightly different version as "standard". Changes can cause a lot of
hassle without necessarily being of any benefit to a project. CL has
many dialects but I don't think the language is going to change much!
> One claim (maybe marketing hype too? I don't know first hand) is that
> there is ONE implementation
> standard for Python on all platforms, and so there is no need to deal
> with GCL CCL ECL Scieneer, Allegro...
> dialects.
>
I would describe this more of a pious hope than a claim!
Cheers,
Bernard Hurley.