Message: 10: on string functions



Hello:

I found  that Maxima is rather weak on string processing.  
I regularly downloaded dna strings from genome databases
which are presented in string formats.   I have no 
problems in Macsyma converting strings to lists and 
vice versa but I have a problem with Maxima because
the getchar function and string_length function are  not defined.  
Here is what I did in Macsyma:

dnastring:"CGATATATATGAGAGAT";
CGATATATATGAGAGAT

dnalist:makelist(getchar(dnastring,k),k,1,string_length(dnastring));
[C, G, A, T, A, T, A, T, A, T, G, A, G, A, G, A, T]

Is there anyone who could suggest how I could do the conversion
from a string to a list.  Incidentally concat function is available in
Maxima which makes it possible to convert a list to a string but
why is this provided when other obvious string functions are not
provided?

HuenYK
www.cahresearch.com   the SA people
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