[GAP Forum] next gap release

[Alexander Hulpke]

Dear GAP forum,

R.N.Tsai asked:

> I'd like to request a small feature that can hopefully
> be included : when assigning names to the generators of an algebra 
> this would be more useful
> 
> AlgebraByStructureConstants( R, sctable, [name1, name2, ...] )

Unless I am misunderstanding your request, this functionality is already included in version 4.4.12, the following is a trivial example:

gap> t:=EmptySCTable( 2, Zero( GF(5) ), "antisymmetric" );
[ [ [ [  ], [  ] ], [ [  ], [  ] ] ], [ [ [  ], [  ] ], [ [  ], [  ] ] ], -1, 
0*Z(5) ]
gap> a:=AlgebraByStructureConstants(GF(5),t,["x","y"]);
<algebra of dimension 2 over GF(5)>
gap> a.1;
x

> PS. when is the next release scheduled for? any previews of changes?
I understand that companies often build up advance  interest in forthcoming products by scheduling a release date and previewing features. This often results in the release of unfinished products and the feature list that is dictated more by marketing than by usability or need.
This is not a model which I would consider desirable, or even feasible (most of the work done on GAP  is volunteer work which cannot suddenly be expanded to hit an arbitrary deadline).
The next release will be available when it is completed, including extensive tests. We are currently in early-stage testing and will start involving  package authors in a couple of months to ensure packages will run as well.  Personally  I hope that the next release will be available within the next year, but delays in previous releases have taught me to not to make promises about release dates anymore.
This next release will include a list of new features, but as this list is not yet completed I don't think it is worth to delay release work just for the sake of creating a preliminary features list at this point.

Best wishes,

 Alexander Hulpke



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