RE: Re[4]: [Axiom-developer] AXIOM for Windows: )copyright and )summary
From: Page, Bill
Subject: RE: Re[4]: [Axiom-developer] AXIOM for Windows: )copyright and )s ummary issue
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:26:42 -0500

On Monday, January 17, 2005 3:04 PM Vladimir Bondarenko wrote:

> BP> You must either delete all versions of `cat' that occur
> BP> in directories that occur before Axiom in the path
> 
> This is precisely that I did before trying to input )copyright
> again.

In `c:\Programs Files\axiom\windows\mnt\bin' you should find
a program named "cat.exe". This is the version of cat that Axiom
must run because it has been modified to accept an undelimited
path that includes spaces, like this

  cat c:\Program Files\axiom\windows\mnt\doc\xxx.txt

The normal unix versions of cat will treat the space as
a command parameter separator and so will fail. Axiom should
be inserting delimiters like this

  cat "c:\Program Files\axiom\windows\mnt\doc\xxx.txt"

but it does not. Really, the proper fix for portability between
unix and Windows is to change the coding in Axiom so that it does
not call external programs to display a text file - instead it
should be done by a simple lisp command. This is one of the
changes that I hope will be in the next version.

If you are having difficulty making sure that the proper version
of "cat" is being run by Axiom, then I suggest that you change
the path so that the Axiom directory comes first. You can do
this by

  Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Advanced/
    Environment Variables/Edit

> 
> BP> Add I await your contribution of a useful bug report with
> BP> baited breath ;)
> 
> To decrease a bit level of your pessimism about my abilities
> I'd just add that it took me less than 15 minutes after
> installation to identify the first math bug I found in AXIOM.

On the contrary I have complete confidence in your ability
to find bugs in Axiom. As I said before: that is the easy part.

What I would really like is if you would take the time to
report these bugs in the proper manner so that this information
is not lost. Then we can hope that sooner or later someone
will come along with enough experience and patience to find a
solution and submit a patch to correct the problem.

Discussing bugs via the email list is not the same as submitting
a proper bug report via the issuetracker at

[FrontPage/issuetracker]

Unless someone takes the time to convert the email into a bug
report, it is quite possible that 6 months for now the email
discussion will be forgotten.

> 
> Are AXIOM's crashes generated by math the sort of reports you
> are awaiting?

I am not waiting for reports. There is a lot of things to do
with Axiom already. But any report of any kind of problem is
welcome to be submitted. Eventually it will be considered by
someone who has sufficient motivation and time to devote to the
problem. Remember that this is an entirely volunteer open source
project.

> 
> If this is the case, sure, the world's # 1 CAS tester,
> I will supply you with them, and much more.
> 

Please "yes" supply all of them. But please use the issuetracker
to document each problem (after you have discused it by email,
if you wish).

Regards,
Bill Page.





------------------------------------------------------------


property change --kratt6, Thu, 23 Jun 2005 06:34:17 -0500

Category: Axiom User Interface => Axiom on Windows 

See info more info at: http://axiom-wiki.newsynthesis.org/34AxiomMissingRmCat





... --japp, Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:22:18 -0700

Status: closed => duplicate