[Maxima] [sage-devel] Fwd: Computer algebra system? / SAGE andPipes

[Richard Fateman]

Thanks for your comments!  I appreciate your efforts to educate me about
SAGE! It is nice to know you've figured ways to get around so many problems.


(The just previous note I wrote regarding how to combine objects from
different worlds is perhaps another issue.) 

My accusation regarding systems being naïve was not intended to be meant as
mathematically unsophisticated, but as relatively lacking in computational
interface complexity. Any system set up to be a single-stream batch
processor, regardless of how cleverly it computes, would still be naïve from
my perspective. By constrast, try to adapt stuff written with microsoft's
.NET in mind to be used in a functional manner  (e.g. voice, handwriting) by
using a Python front end. Doing so with Lisp (which I think of as roughly
python with parentheses) has taken several years [fortunately, not full
time!] of work by some clever undergraduates and me, and we are not entirely
there.

It is necessary, for these systems to start up asynchronous "engines" and do
things like poll them. I think that web servers and database engines may
also make such demands. Working around these issues "functionally" in spite
of pressure from Microsoft to use C# and .NET brings to mind the Borg
phrase, "Resistance is futile, You will be assimilated" [into .NET] 

RJF