My first impression - I think FriCAS does need something like this.
I have not come across readthedocs.org or Sphinx before, so I can't
comment on the technical details, but if not this system, then something
like it is really needed.
I tend to think of FriCAS as a very good mathematics program attached to
a very bad documentation program (attached to an unusable graphics viewer).
I can sympathise with Waldek wanting to keep things simple but I think
there are a lot of benefits in having some abstraction layers that hide
the details of various platforms. It seems to me that this clunky C code
holds back development in all sorts of hidden ways.
I don't think that X windows is as permanent as you think and will it
operate on all platforms? Are you going to maintain all that C code to
run on:
* Wayland
* Mir
* Mac OS X
* Android
* Microsoft
Will you be testing it on all these platforms, and others that may
evolve, every time you change the code?
It is not for me to tell other people what to spend their time on, but
it does concern me that the single key person (Waldek), on which the
whole project depends, is more interested in maintaining a documentation
program than documenting, writing and maintaining the core mathematics code.
New Users
---------
First impressions are very important, and that is a real advantage of
something like this.
I think we are swayed by things like the look and feel of a program more
than we think (including mathematicians). I suspect that most potential
new users will reject FriCAS without even downloading and trying it.
When I was looking for an open source CAS, I made a list of potential
contenders and then looked at things like:
* Quality of documentation
* How active is the web fourum
* Look at any screenshots
* Does it support the functionality that I want.
* Is there a well written getting-started guide.
At this stage people make instant decisions based on instinct, that are
looking for a quick way to cut down the choices.
Personally I rejected Axiom+forks several times, on these grounds,
without even trying it. It was only later that I came back to it and
eventuality discovered its qualities.
When I eventually tried it, neither Axiom nor FriCAS would run on my
computer, It was only after Bill mentioned the openSuSE virtual memory
limit issue that I got FriCAS working. When I did get it working I was
not impressed by HyperDoc and turned it off in startup script.
There are all sorts of usability issues with HyperDoc, nowadays people
expect programs to have certain UI features and if a program confuses
their expectations they will reject it.
I know, very well, that FriCAS has a steep learning curve. I don't think
that is a reason to put people off before they start. Do not assume that
other people are looking for the things that you find familiar and
comforing in the FriCAS interface.
Regular Users
-------------
I think it would be useful to have all documentation in one place. I
suspect that even experienced users don't know where to look for a given
piece of information. I don't know what category I would put myself in,
but I often don’t know where to look for given information.
readthedocs specifics
---------------------
I get the impression that this is a work in prograss and you are not
looking for comments on the details. I think the single long alphabetic
index is a problem and it needs a way to filter by categories, domains,
function names and so on.
Also how easy is it to produce diagrams, screenshots and so on.
My Issues
---------
I like to produce my documentation using HTML and graphics tools. I
would have real problems in changing this. Moving to some Tex editor
like LyX would be a big backward step for me, I'm not sure I would do that.
I know that this exports to html but the round trip html->tex->html is
not going to give good results.
Waldek has said he likes HyperDoc because it forces authors to be
concise (I suspect thats true only in the sense that it puts people off
authoring documention altogether). I would also like the documentation
to be concise (but also comprehensive), not a work of literature, but
something rich in diagrams, tables, screens shots and so on - not
sprinkled sparsely through the documentation but making up most of the
content. For me that is the way to make it concise, usable and appealing
to new users.
Martin
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