Re: Adding a generic mathematical library

[Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org>]

Where to actually start? After all this meta, maybe some words
on that the way I see it.

They way I would do it is to identify the simplest level or
place of math. Some people say logic is math, other say math
is based on logic, but to me, here, it doesn't matter since
I think arithmetic is much simpler than logic anyway.

So if we start there (this is again how I see it) one would
look around, what do we already have - this will be a lot, of
course. But are there things we don't have that are essential
and basic, or really interesting for that matter - then we
implement them, because at such a low level, we should cover
all or close to all things that are important.

And one shouldn't think, "well, we don't have it but one can
solve that with Elisp". Because one can solve everything with
Elisp! Here we want specific functions and we want them to be
fast, easy-to-use and readily available. (One will still have
to think what to add or not, as always.)

So when arithmetic is done - good work, pad pad - and we can
move up someplace else, maybe more challenging as well.
And the higher one will come, the more people will just do
what they are into, because it will be impossible to cover
everything of everything when it becomes that specialized.
But that is OK, free software is like that, people do what
they are into. And I dare say that people _will_ want to do
Combinatorics, Probability, Linear Algebra, and all crazy
stuff there is.

A challenge will be to find people who already have that kind
of stuff, maybe half-done. That will be a huge help to see,
what did they do, how far did they come, why didn't they
complete it, etc.

That is: at the basic level one must have pretty much
everything so why not start there?

Know that if we plan this for ELPA people will have made an
active choise to use it, that means we shouldn't be too afraid
to include stuff. They use it because they want it, so we
should make sure there is something there for them to get :)

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal