On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 7:39 AM, Martin Albrecht <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > You seem to be anti-open source in your own work, > > which is what *really* matters to you. It's my understanding > > that you've written a very interesting library in computer > > algebra and it is closed source. Correct me if I'm wrong, > > but I have the impression you generally don't see the value > > in *open source* mathematical software (per se), and > > are mainly interested in Sage only for the technically > > interesting successes it has had. > > Even though I'd prefer the mentioned library to be open source, I'm not sure > I'd call the policy anti-open source. Fast arithmetic with multivariate > polynomials is IMHO for many (not all!) applications mostly useful in the > context of a computer algebra system which involves Gröbner bases, higher > level algorithms, heuristics etc. Though I am aware that for some > applications Roman's library would kick ass in its current form, for some > others it will not in that form. On the other hand Roman did write a -- as > far as I've skimmed it -- nice paper on the matter detailing his > implementation strategy. I lack the experience/knowledge to judge whether the > presented performance improvements would make a huge difference for the > computation of e.g. Gröbner bases, but he put information out there for > others to try.
Well I think Roman is a very valuable contributor to computer algebra research, I greatly appreciate his work, and I'm glad he is doing it. And I am personally not in any sense anti-closed source either in certain cases, i.e., I strongly support people or organizations releasing software however they want (e.g., I *really* appreciate VMware, which is a closed source program). It's just that the fact he makes his code closed source right now seems relevant to the advice he is giving in this instance, and I'm hoping he might elaborate on his perspective. Roman -- please don't think I'm trying to be hostile. I would love for you to write more in response, and I value your time. > > > > > BTW, asking for contributors is the surest way to get zero > > > contributors. > > > > I'm really glad I didn't listen to you over the last three years. > > Hi, I'm slightly puzzled by that reply since it feels rather hostile. If I > understood the e-mail correctly then Roman implied that at *this particular > meeting* asking for contributors might be perceived as annoying? Thus he > shared his opinion to help us to make the Sage presentation more successful. You're right, my reply does sound hostile. Thanks for pointing this out, since it wasn't my intension. There are so many times over the last three years that I've been told something like that, but just decided on instinct (I guess) to ignore it, and instead simply ask people for help, and the result has been very good. I really hope Roman will explain why he strongly feels that my asking for help at ISSAC will *guarantee* no help, but not asking for help will result in help? Since I have never been to ISSAC and he has, I'm at a pretty big disadvantage as far as understanding the audience, to put it mildly. -- william --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
