God I hate to see such research die. I hope they have a "deadman provision" to open source the work if MuPAD/SciFace dies. Perhaps we could merge the efforts and benefit in the long run. If they do open the code someone should let me know.
I know that in the U.S. there is no NSF funding available for Computer Algebra research. The argument seems to be that as long as there are commercial ventures doing CA there is no need for public funding. (Europe has been much more enlightened in this respect.) It's a short-sighted view. Companies fail. And when they fail they take their code with them. Witness IBM, during its failing years, which sold Axiom. Witness Symbolics, which locked up Macsyma. Even with individuals we lose work. Manual's work is still tied up somewhere in INRIA. Suppose it was Wolfram or Maplesoft that folded? What would become of all of that research work? Will computational mathematics have a huge black hole if these companies die? I fear for the future of computational mathematics. The past century was the birth of the subject. This century will make for a very difficult childhood. Is this how future science will live and die? Tim _______________________________________________ Axiom-developer mailing list Axiom-developer@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer
