GAP should not require PrimgGrp/SmallGrp/TransGrp packages

[olexandr-konovalov]

The libraries of small, primitive and transitive groups which previously were an integral part of ⪆ were split into three separate packages:

• PrimgGrp
• SmallGrp
• TransGrp

For backwards compatibility, these are required packages in GAP 4.9 (i.e., GAP will not start without them). We plan to change this for GAP 4.10, once all packages which currently implicitly rely on these new packages had time to add explicit dependencies on them.

This issue under the milestone 4.10 is created to track this:

• list all packages that need to be updated
• notify package authors
• track progress

[fingolfin]

Started work on this via #2589, but I am pretty sure tons of packages need changes...

E.g. lots of packages use smallgrp in their test files. This can be resolved by adding an explicit LoadPackage("smallgrp") to their tst/testall.g file.

Just to get a first rough approximation of which packages might be affected, I did some very simple grepping to get a first approximation of the issue (note that will be both false positives and false negatives with this method):

Packages which seem to use TransitiveGroup:

• ctbllib
• Hap1.12
• loops
• radiroot
• SCSCP
• simpcomp
• transgrp -- no issue

Packages which seem to use PrimitiveGroup:

• Browse
• ctbllib
• digraphs
• grape
• primgrp -- no issue
• recog
• SCSCP
• simpcomp

Packages which seem to use SmallGroup:

• anupq
• autpgrp
• crime
• crisp
• ctbllib
• cubefree
• format
• groupoids
• grpconst
• Hap1.12
• help
• irredsol
• laguna
• loops
• modisom
• permut
• polenta
• polycyclic
• rcwa
• rds
• SCSCP
• semigroups
• sglppow
• simpcomp
• SmallGrp -- no issue
• smallsemi
• unitlib
• utils
• wedderga
• xgap
• XMod
• XModAlg

We could now go through these packages, and update the above check lists once we know the package either declares suitable dependencies, or has been fixed, or was never really affected in the first place (ideally leave a comment stating which it was)

All in all, this is a big bunch of packages, so we'd need a good plan on how to approach this if we want to resolve it in time for GAP 4.10... May need to punt this to a later release otherwise.

[fingolfin]

This won't be in 4.10; not even sure that it realistically can be in 4.11, but I bumped it to that milestone anyway.

[fingolfin]

Removed this from the 4.11 milestone. I don't think we can do this in time, and in fact, I am not sure it'll ever happen, it just isn't worth the effort compared to many other more pressing issues.

That said, if anybody wants to help with this: pick one (or multiple!) of the packages on the list above; check whether it really needs any of the functionality of PrimgGrp/SmallGrp/TransGrp ; if no, state so here (and check its checkbox); if yes, provide a pull request to that package which adds the dependency to that package's PackageInfo.g, then add a comment here with a link to that PR. Rince and repeat for more packages :-)

[fingolfin]

I should also point out that the GAP library itself uses these packages, e.g.

• primgrp: used in lib/gpprmsya.gi to compute normalizers, maximal subgroups, ... in alternating&symmetric groups
• smallgrp: lots of code in the library uses IdGroup
• transgrp: e.g. lib/galois.gi uses TransitiveGroup

[olexandr-konovalov]

Erm... should this ever happen at all?