[Matrix-SIG] how to contribute new code ?

[Paul F. Dubois]

David correctly summarizes our view: we don't think having us holding these
packages is a good idea. All other ideas have problems, too. The starship
seems like one solution in the long run, with each author managing their own
bit.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Ascher <da@skivs.ski.org>
To: Ryszard Czerminski <ryszard@moldyn.com>
Cc: matrix-sig@python.org <matrix-sig@python.org>
Date: Monday, September 28, 1998 9:33 AM
Subject: Re: [Matrix-SIG] how to contribute new code ?


>
>
>On Mon, 28 Sep 1998, Ryszard Czerminski wrote:
>>
>> I was looking recently for routine which would solve linear
>> least square problem A*X = B with constrains X >= 0.
>>
>> I have found fortran code for this
>> and I have written Python interface
>> to it using lapack_litemodule from NumPy as a template.
>>
>> It seems to me that access to this code via python
>> may be of general interest.
>
>Certainly.
>
>> What is the usual way of contributing
>> such a code to Numpy ?
>
>There is no 'usual'.  There are two possible ways to distribute such code
>a) within the LLNL distribution, and b) on the net.  Currently, I think
>the LLNL folks don't want to take the responsibility to distribute code
>they don't 'own'.  The maintenance and release process is too cumbersome
>to allow for that (e.g. if the author of a contributed package decides to
>update his package every day, there's a problem).  That leaves b), on the
>net.  There is a project in development to develop a generic architecture
>for dealing with software archives (the Trove project, led by Eric
>Raymond).  It is not at a useable stage, however.  In the meantime, if
>someone wants to publish on the web and doesn't have a website for it,
>I'll gladly put things up on my starship account (assuming not-to-frequent
>releases), as I did for two modules from Travis Oliphant
>(http://starship.skyport.net/~da/Travis/).
>
>This doesn't solve some of the other problems, such as how to categorize
>NumPy-related software.  There are standard schemes for catogization, but
>I believe they won't work without a skilled 'librarian' who knows enough
>about all of the various topics to do the categorization right.  Using a
>completely informal approach, I have started a "Topic Guide", which is
>available at http://www.python.org/topics/scicomp/.  It is rough at this
>point, but I intend to have it cleaned up before the Python Conference --
>feel free to email me comments and suggestions.  Also note that there is
>the framework for a NumPy FAQ at http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/numpy-faq,
>which I encourage people to add entries to (no password is necessary --
>leave the password field blank).
>
>Cheers,
>
>--david
>
>
>
>
>
>
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