From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Adding a generic mathematical library Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:29:47 +0300 Message-ID: <86plrbf990.fsf@gnu.org> References: <8734o9sdig.fsf@posteo.net> <87wmllqq66.fsf@posteo.net> <87plrdqnhc.fsf@posteo.net> <87le21qldj.fsf_-_@posteo.net> <87r0bssde4.fsf@web.de> <87frs8sb8p.fsf@web.de> <87zfqf8c8n.fsf@dataswamp.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="30136"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Emanuel Berg Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Thu Jul 18 09:30:40 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 1sULb5-0007XP-Gy for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Thu, 18 Jul 2024 09:30:39 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1sULaM-0005Ex-Dm; Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:29:54 -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 1sULaJ-0005Ee-Np for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:29:51 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1sULaI-0000nK-LO; Thu, 18 Jul 2024 03:29:50 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnu.org; s=fencepost-gnu-org; h=MIME-version:References:Subject:In-Reply-To:To:From: Date; bh=Rco5Jxhioslx6WKg8O3ag6rvTMVAO5CgoltPoLJGbkg=; b=gO2OQDI+BbtNgvf0MS6O o+ByTRwxw8X8tc5i3e5xXhSTprikXkiByCCCg4M9P7MAK3VHp5FKuX/Tjk55Y+usVjPeItcKfdpWJ YcG0a9zZftG5Fm0P7KZ5l44XlW4jWA6NYZ25sS1fnJxDNmRJrDLtXQryCBgG9oKD30WYVzkyypmrP Yt2X/3Ao3qA+ai/rl3RwitcfHHPvy4ficd0RbeJQEy/B2qMZvDTbTVk0OTspIoPkNSgkV4rOE5O+i XwEWWukiQcgo1SHMUGUlh0CLc4QzEglTJ9RzDNoyg6T/drPKpPyBUPJj99EBh+Xz+Nq87otYhfG2v XiXpLVR/82Ty3A==; In-Reply-To: <87zfqf8c8n.fsf@dataswamp.org> (message from Emanuel Berg on Thu, 18 Jul 2024 08:07:04 +0200) 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:321779 Archived-At: > From: Emanuel Berg > Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2024 08:07:04 +0200 > > Michael Heerdegen via "Emacs development discussions." wrote: > > > I don't understand why it would be a good idea to start > > from scratch. > > Maybe we should have a math library in ELPA, then it will be > less hesitation to just add stuff that is desired as we go > along, not having to argue what relevance it has to Emacs > per se as a piece of text editing software. To have a math library on ELPA, the library should be reasonably-comprehensive, use solid algorithms, and solve problems that happen in real life frequently enough. By contrast, my impression from looking at your library is that it is an ad-hoc collection of functions that solve problems you personally find useful, but their general usefulness is IMO questionable, and at least in some cases the algorithms are not the best ones known for the job. For example, your mean-value function implements a naïve algorithm that has known accuracy and round-off issues. It is perfectly okay to have such libraries for personal use, of course, but that is not the issue at hand here. If what you offer is to have a completely different library, then we need first to talk what will be in it and which algorithms it will implement. "Math functions" is a very broad term, so defining the scope for such a library is not a trivial job. > In general libraries for everything is a good way of not > having people write code that solves the same problems over > and over. Yes, but since the functions you propose are not in Emacs, and neither (AFAICT) is any code which resembles them, I wonder whether the need is a real one and general enough to justify such a package.