Re: group identification patch

[Bill Allombert <allomber@math.u-bordeaux.fr>]

On Thu, Apr 03, 2003 at 03:17:22PM -0800, Ilya Zakharevich wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 02, 2003 at 11:25:28PM +0200, Bill Allombert wrote:
> > The point of the description system is to be able to document functions
> > that are not GP function, and to be able to just do install(func)
> > without guessing the prototype.
> 
> I may be wrong, but IMO the prototype is the lest important issue
> here.  What is important is to have the information about available
> algorithms implemented (prefererably with limitations described).  All
> I ask for is a canonical location to start further investigation.
> 
> Something similar to TODO file; it is not necessary to have the info
> in a computer-parsable way (though an example install() invocation for
> each guy would not hurt).  How to name the file?  Why not
> NOT-INSTALLED-algorithms?

You are just describing the important part of the description system.
Thanks!

The computer-parsable part is needed since that allows us to:
1) Build a nice TeX manual from this.
2) Implement install().
3) Allows GP2C to know about the functions.
4) Basic consistency check of the documentation with the code.
5) Basic API definition and checking.
6) Eliminate hard-coded tables in GP and GP2C.
7) Have a proper interface for other project (e.g. Math::PARI).

Anyway you are free to write the NOT-INSTALLED-algorithms. I will 
convert it to the description system once it is merged.

Cheers,
Bill.