LispNYC is a sponsoring organization for the Google Summer of Code projects. Heow Eide-Goodman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> still has a few slots available for qualified projects.
In the past, Axiom has had several projects proposed. One of them was "Create a Hyperdoc replacement/enhancement". This work has been ongoing recently with the new Firefox replacement. There are several interesting tasks that need to be done, some of them are high level design. Some suggested tasks might be: * Integrate graphics One of the tasks is to integrate the existing graphics into the Firefox browser. The planned direction for this over the coming months is to write the graphics onto the new CANVAS object. This involves figuring out an interface to the graphics, working out the correct API, and constructing an AJAX interface that allows Axiom to manipulate the canvas. * Affordance design I am currently designing the new crystal interface, which will first appear as a Firefox frontend to Axiom. There are several ideas being prototyped. This project would involve reading in design (Winograd "Understanding Computers and Cognition. A New Foundation for Design"; Winograd "Bringing Design to Software", Alexander, "A Pattern Language", etc) and high level discussions. It also involves prototyping design ideas. You do not need to know how to write code but a strong background in design is important. * Contextual menus The new Firefox interface now has menus similar to wxMaxima. However, in Axiom the menu items are not static but depend on the type of the current expression. For instance, "solve" does not exist for integers and thus should not be in the menu when the last result is an integer. A mechanism needs to be worked out to compute the menu-set for a given type. This will involve writing Lisp code to manipulate the category and type hierarchy of Axiom. * Pamphlet awareness Axiom's native file format is the pamphlet, which is a literate program that combines latex and source code. There is a need to make the system pervasively aware of this format so that one can, for example, compile directly from the pamphlet or spool output directly to pamphlets. This involves Lisp programing and a working knowledge of Latex. * asdf rewrite Axiom will move away from Makefiles soon after the Firefox front end is fully viable. This will involve redesigning and reimplementing the current build architecture to use asdf rather than make as the primary organizing machine. This will involve several subtasks and assumes a strong ANSI lisp background and a working knowledge of asdf. * Special functions Axiom lacks support for many special functions. These are implemented in either Lisp or Axiom. This requires a strong math background and an ability to program in common lisp. There are many other projects that are on the list. And Heow is open to non-axiom projects so you might want to send him your ideas. I'd suggest you hurry though as the bidding should close soon. Tim _______________________________________________ Axiom-developer mailing list Axiom-developer@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer