next release?

[Martin R]

Dear FriCAS folks!

I would like to know whether there are any plans to have a new release in the near future.

(I am asking because of the conversions to InputForm added in August, which would be good to have for the SageMath users.)

Best wishes,

Martin

[Waldek Hebisch]

Martin R wrote:
>
> I would like to know whether there are any plans to have a new release in
> the near future.
>
> (I am asking because of the conversions to InputForm added in August, which
> would be good to have for the SageMath users.)

We have a lot of plans, just too little time to execute them...
More seriously, I would like to have new release in January,
but there are few things which I would really like to do
for this release (which is why it did not happen in November
or December).

--
Waldek Hebisch

[oldk1331]

I wish next release can provide Windows and macsOS binary
(without X11 dependency).

I can do this work as I have relevant environment.

[Waldek Hebisch]

oldk1331 wrote:
>
> I wish next release can provide Windows and macsOS binary
> (without X11 dependency).
>
> I can do this work as I have relevant environment.

Hmm, on Windows recent Cygwin clisp on longer supports creation
of executables, so we need some different way of creating
executables. Having X11 parts would be nice, but you decide
on which parts you want ot spend effort and which to skip.

AFAIK on macsOS build including X11 works out of the box.
There may be some buglet that appeared recently or usual
problems with changes to macsOS, but including X11 should
not add significant effort to creating an executable.

More on this: X11 means having Hyperdoc and graphics.
IME both are quite useful. I know that some people
think that Ralf API site is a better replacement for
Hyperdoc. Well, having API site is good, but that
depends on network access. IMO this is _big_ problem.
Namely, with network come issues of security and privacy.
One of best security practices is to cut of or severly
limit network access. Of course, any programs depending
on network for its operation subverts this and it seems
that many programs are provided because provider
_wants_ to subvert security (in nicer language wants
to collect "business data" it needs). Many open source
programs jump on this train, but please understand:
I would like to keep FriCAS independent of network.

Again, it is up to you if you include/exclude X11 or
provide two versions, but I hope that you understand
that I consider X11 support important and why.

--
Waldek Hebisch

[Kurt Pagani]

On 02.01.2019 20:51, Waldek Hebisch wrote:
> oldk1331 wrote:
>>
>> I wish next release can provide Windows and macsOS binary
>> (without X11 dependency).
>>
>> I can do this work as I have relevant environment.
>
> Hmm, on Windows recent Cygwin clisp on longer supports creation
> of executables, so we need some different way of creating
> executables. Having X11 parts would be nice, but you decide
> on which parts you want ot spend effort and which to skip.
>

AFAIK ECL works fine.
Compiled fricas for cygwin64 recently ...
https://github.com/nilqed/fricas_cygwin

[Ralf Hemmecke]

Hi Waldek,

Regarding a new release...

I'm currently trying to prepare the patch of docfixes that originate
from Riccardo Guida.

I'm also preparing an update to the fricas-book and the fricas.github.io
website (not only the api part). That will still take a few days, since
not everything is working smoothly at the moment.

> I know that some people think that Ralf API site is a better
> replacement for Hyperdoc. Well, having API site is good, but that
> depends on network access.

Well, I think this is only true if you mean access over the network.
In fact, all parts to compile the API HTML files are free, so everyone
can locally compile that stuff. No need for network access.
I have it even working for me without a webserver running on localhost
(OK, the search functionality isn't quite supported then.)

I'm going to make the generation of that (local) website easier.

> I would like to keep FriCAS independent of network.

You will be surprised, but I support this wish. fricas.github.io only
exists to make it easier to communicate over the web and to advertise
FriCAS. By no means was it created to *force* people to use it. I'm all
for having information locally. And I'm going to promote a local
website, when I have it sufficiently simple.

BTW, *you* insist on using SVN, i.e., need of network access for commits
or comparison against older versions. With git that would be a local
operation.

Ralf

[oldk1331]

On 1/3/19 3:51 AM, Waldek Hebisch wrote:
> oldk1331 wrote:
>>
>> I wish next release can provide Windows and macsOS binary
>> (without X11 dependency).
>>
>> I can do this work as I have relevant environment.
>
> Hmm, on Windows recent Cygwin clisp on longer supports creation
> of executables, so we need some different way of creating
> executables. Having X11 parts would be nice, but you decide
> on which parts you want ot spend effort and which to skip.

I plan to use mingw instead of Cygwin, so that the binary doesn't
have extra dependency. X11 support might be planned for future.
I plan to use SBCL if possible.

> AFAIK on macsOS build including X11 works out of the box.
> There may be some buglet that appeared recently or usual
> problems with changes to macsOS, but including X11 should
> not add significant effort to creating an executable.

Latest macOS doesn't support X11 out of box, and support
for X11 on macOS might be fewer in the future, so I'll
only provide FriCAS release without X11 for now.

> More on this: X11 means having Hyperdoc and graphics.
> IME both are quite useful. I know that some people
> think that Ralf API site is a better replacement for
> Hyperdoc. Well, having API site is good, but that
> depends on network access. IMO this is _big_ problem.
> Namely, with network come issues of security and privacy.
> One of best security practices is to cut of or severly
> limit network access. Of course, any programs depending
> on network for its operation subverts this and it seems
> that many programs are provided because provider
> _wants_ to subvert security (in nicer language wants
> to collect "business data" it needs). Many open source
> programs jump on this train, but please understand:
> I would like to keep FriCAS independent of network.
>
> Again, it is up to you if you include/exclude X11 or
> provide two versions, but I hope that you understand
> that I consider X11 support important and why.
>

I understand there are unique features in X11 interface.
On the other hand, having command line interface binary
release is better than no binary release, let's take one
step ahead and see if there will be more people download
FriCAS.