From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Adding a generic mathematical library Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2024 14:04:29 +0200 Message-ID: <87bk2r3q9e.fsf@dataswamp.org> References: <8734o9sdig.fsf@posteo.net> <87wmllqq66.fsf@posteo.net> <87plrdqnhc.fsf@posteo.net> <87le21qldj.fsf_-_@posteo.net> <878qy1at52.fsf@dataswamp.org> <87ikwz5nll.fsf@dataswamp.org> <875xsz5g07.fsf@dataswamp.org> <87v80z3wkq.fsf@dataswamp.org> <87ed7n3sav.fsf@dataswamp.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="35007"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Cancel-Lock: sha1:tKByalmoYRynxkI2o2LrMn4nM64= Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Sun Jul 21 14:08:26 2024 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1sVVMX-0008ts-MG for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Sun, 21 Jul 2024 14:08:25 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1sVVMB-0004ue-FM; Sun, 21 Jul 2024 08:08:03 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1sVVJ1-0004Sn-Dz for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 21 Jul 2024 08:04:47 -0400 Original-Received: from ciao.gmane.io ([116.202.254.214]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1sVVIz-0001p0-NP for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 21 Jul 2024 08:04:47 -0400 Original-Received: from list by ciao.gmane.io with local (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1sVVIx-0004bW-8u for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 21 Jul 2024 14:04:43 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Mail-Followup-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Mail-Copies-To: never Received-SPF: pass client-ip=116.202.254.214; envelope-from=ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; helo=ciao.gmane.io X-Spam_score_int: -18 X-Spam_score: -1.9 X-Spam_bar: - X-Spam_report: (-1.9 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS=0.001, SPF_HELO_NONE=0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-Mailman-Approved-At: Sun, 21 Jul 2024 08:07:59 -0400 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:321871 Archived-At: 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