maxima performance



Greetings!  First let me preface this by saying that maxima is more
than fast enough for my needs, and that I haven't as yet fully
explored all its functionality.  But I did notice the discussion on
bignums, and how gcl/maxima can now benefit from the enhanced
performance offered by gmp.  My questions:

1) Could maxima realistically benefit from using optimized blas
   routines, as does octave?
2) Could maxima realistically benefit from using MPI and running over
   a cluster?

Obviously, the answer to 1 and 2 could only be yes with a problem size
much much larger than anything I personally have seen so far.  I'm
just interested if any other users have seen such large problems.

Separately

3) Is there any way to use gcl as a stand-alone compiler, making object
   files which can be linked with fortran and C object files into the
   final executable?  It seems as though the way to use gcl to make a
   stand-alone program such as maxima is rather by dumping its memory
   image or some such after loading the maxima lisp source.

Take care,


-- 
Camm Maguire			     			camm@enhanced.com
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah