From: none <webb.sprague@...>
Date: 2005-07-08T04:45:47+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby as mathematical language

Has anybody done any collaborative design?   I am not sure how we might
proceed from  here.  (I don't think trusting something to just appear
on a wiki is a good plan, though the wiki looks like a great tool.)

I think there are a lot of really bright people willing to help if we
can focus the effort in an integrated way.  Something a la Python's PEP
process, perhaps (no more alliteration!), or an RFC thing.  It might be
best to start from a model--implementing it might be the easy part,
given the amazing amount of talent available.

I think we *need* to get away from thinking about what libraries are
available and how to cobble them together.  Instead, we need to
*imagine* and *specify* what we would want in a perfect scientific
language.

Also, as long as the base algorithms and graphics are there (linear
algebra, etc), I think folks will add libraries all over the place. GSL
is a great resource for example, maybe the PARI libraries, and ??

Rambling over for the moment...