+ +--Nelson Beebe, June 28, 2010 + + ++I come from a mathematics department and many mathematicians, +particularly those in pure math, have a strong distrust of computers +They are really not inclined to accept computer-based proofs, +although there have been some dramatic examples of those in the last +two or three decades. +
+In the early 1970s, researchers at IBM developed a symbolic algebra +system called Scratchpad. This went on inside IBM for many years. +There were lots of papers written about it. It ultimately got renamed +to Axiom and was sold by NAG, the Numerical Algorithms Group in +England, for a few years. Then it disappeared from the market and +became unavailable. +
+People worried about this for probably about 5 years but finally NAG +was able to release it. A major decision has been taken. Axiom is +being completely reimplemented as a literate program. The reason +is that software outlives hardware, and often its own authors. The +author of Scratchpad died about 5 years ago. +
+So they feel the only way that this system can survive and be used by +future generations is to be written as a literate program so that the +reason behind the program is embedded there as part of the description +of the code. I think this is really important and could be really +quite significant for the future growth of computing and mathematics. +
+
+The nature of functional programming is to build, Russian doll-style, functions that use functions that use functions etc. But without something like a literate style, your efforts are quickly lost in the diff --git a/src/axiom-website/patches.html b/src/axiom-website/patches.html index f08eb6f..4e5bf8b 100644 --- a/src/axiom-website/patches.html +++ b/src/axiom-website/patches.html @@ -4346,6 +4346,8 @@ bookvol4 add operationalist details book/*.txt email cleanup 20140520.01.tpd.patch books/bookvolbib.pamphlet +20140520.02.tpd.patch +src/axiom-website/documentation.html