--- Bill Page <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think of B# as first of all generalizing 'Expression' so that > all of the computations that a user is likely to want to do can > be done entirely within that one domain - just as if they were > calculating using Maple or Mathematica. And then simplifying > the syntax and semantics of the Spad language so that it always > implicitly refers to this generalized domain. And there is some > syntactic sugar to add to make this all a little sweeter.
Sounds like a good way to make Axiom more friendly for new (and casual) users. > But rather than Spad, I would argue that Aldor is actually a > better choice for the B# implementation language. We have > discussed elsewhere on this list the fact that Aldor has > already been used to write a parser for the Aldor language. > Doing something similar for the B# language seems completely > feasible to me. I agree this is a job for a high level language, but I would suggest that the Aldor licensing situation be clarified before implementing B# in it. (I promise I'll move to axiom-legal if the discussion around this heats up ;-). > If we use Aldor (or Spad) to implement B#, then a user would > start using B# by invoking the read-eval-print-loop within the > B# package something like this: > > (1) -> repl()$Bnatural > > Of course this could be hidden for first time users within the > initial axiom.input file. Right. > After invoking the repl, the user's interaction would be > controlled by the B# package as described in the Jenks and > Trager article. > > What do you think? Is there enough interest in this to declare > this as an "official" Axiom open source project? I would say so! We want users, and Axiom's type system is frequently cited as a high hurdle for beginners. I like the idea of starting out in B-natural, and then for advanced users being able to "drop down" into the current environment when strong typing becomes a tool rather than a distraction. The full power of Axiom is hidden but when the user wants to expand they will find the system able to do so. Cheers, CY P.S. Bill, just a quick dumb question on the Real Number stuff - are Real Numbers on a computer just an expansion of Floats? E.g. Floats are designed to map well to the limitations of the low level processors, and Reals are a superset of Floats but make no attempt to be easy on the hardware? __________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - Make it your home page! http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs _______________________________________________ Axiom-developer mailing list Axiom-developer@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer