Re: String utilities/files

[Karim Belabas <Karim.Belabas@math.u-psud.fr>]

* cino hilliard <hillcino368@hotmail.com> [2004-01-22 01:10]:
> Thanks Karim for the Strchr function I notice in the last release of the 
> windows pari.exe
> I have built some traditional string functions using this and others. See 
> the script below. See my
> comments. I have loaded this in my .gprc file but it would be nice if this 
> would be built in to Pari in
> optimized code. There are many more functions that could be added.

One of the main problems in developping / maintaining a (long-lived) software
is to keep features from creeping in.  [ aka creeping featurism, aka code
bloat, etc. ]

True, a new feature serves some immediate purpose (hopefully!). But will the
code be maintained ? Will it be properly documented ? (including refcards,
etc.). How actually useful is it ? Will it make learning / using the software
easier or more difficult ? [ look at the size of the index in the
documentation ]

More important: are we re-inventing the wheel ? is the same functionality
already provided by some other free, portable, well-maintained tool, which
has no problem communicating with GP ? See e.g my "extern" tutorial

  http://www.math.u-psud.fr/~belabas/pari/doc/ellrank.html

Usually one finds out that simple scripts ( using GP or Math::Perl as Bill
suggested ) would serve the exact same purpose. Slower perhaps, but speed is 
hardly ever of the essence.

I'm maintaining an archive of useful (usually non-trivial) scripts at

  http://www.math.u-psud.fr/~belabas/pari/scripts/

I am more than willing to add any contribution to this, provided it is at
least marginally documented [ an addhelp() statement for each public routine
is fine ].

Thanks,

    Karim.

> Maybe someone can help me do a DLL for windows?

I'd be very interested in knowing whether this works in native Windows
environments [ under Cygwin, it does ].
-- 
Karim Belabas                     Tel: (+33) (0)1 69 15 57 48
Dep. de Mathematiques, Bat. 425   Fax: (+33) (0)1 69 15 60 19
Universite Paris-Sud              http://www.math.u-psud.fr/~belabas/ 
F-91405 Orsay (France)            http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/  [PARI/GP]