On October 22, 2006 9:15 AM Ralf Hemmecke wrote: > Tim Daly wrote: > > So if straight latex is the base case of a valid literate > > pamphlet file (since it contains 0 lines of code) then we > > have a working definition. > > Cool, I have never read this somewhere before. ;-) >
Yes, one might have thought that Knuth would have started with a definition like this, wouldn't you? But he didn't. > > There are many ways to implement that definition, maybe use > > the latex command directly or fix noweb to stop mangling latex. > > noweb applied to a pamphlet file which does not use noweb > > should be the identity function. > > > noweb has a bug, not a feature. > > Wrong. For your definition, noweb is simply the wrong tool. > Norman defined his format and where does he say that running > noweb over a latex file should be the identity? Ralf is correct. Tim is wrong. We can not say that noweb has a bug. However I do agree that it is a pity that noweb wasn't designed the way Tim suggests. This would have been nice but perhaps it conflicts with other design goals that Norman had in mind when he wrote noweb. > > Anyway, I agree with Bill. We should take the noweb format and > concentrate on other things until somebody comes and invests > lots of time to > > 1) define a good pamphlet format and > 2) provide convenient tools to handle this format. > > Maybe noweb is not perfect. But it answers 1) and 2) pretty well. > And seemingly most Axiom developers are happy with it. > And I agree with Ralf... :-) Axiom is an open source project. As such it should "play nicely" with the rest of the open source development community and collaborate with the authors of the tools on which we depend. We can not afford the time and resouces to solve all of these problems for ourselves or else we will never get around to actually implementing new computer algebra! We *must* take advantage of the open source development environment and depend on other open source developers to provide the tools. > If somebody comes forth and defines a new format (clearly that > would be done in a .pamphlet file), then most developers would > first have to agree that this is a better format. Then the format > translation should be done *automatically*. As I have said before in this frequently recurring discussion, *if* we were to choose a new literate programming tool, then I would much prefer a more radical solution than simply changing the underlying file format. There are much better tools available for literate programming, such as Leo, which provide a complete and integrated literate programming environment. > ... Regards, Bill Page. _______________________________________________ Axiom-developer mailing list Axiom-developer@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer
