(semi)Successful Maxima 5.9.0 installation under Windows Millennium

Dear David,
Dear Mike,
Dear colleagues,

This is to announce that I already downloaded, unzipped and
installed the test Maxima/XMaxima new distribution 5.9.0 by
David uploaded today under Windows Millennium. Many thanks 
for the preparation of this Windows directly executable files to
replace the so old 5.5 beta fow Windows I am using now.

In principle, I have been successful with the installation and have
been able to run my ordinary commands with Maxima under the
XMaxima GUI and get the expected results without serious 
problems.

Yet, there are some points I would like to see improved. These
concern:

1. I prefer the directory Program Files than Programs (now)
under Windows. (Maxima runs only under Programs in its 
present test version. I have been brave to change and I failed!)

2. There seems to be a delay when loading Maxima to run.
Sometimes this delay is serious. Once I have got the message:

Starting Maxima timed out. Wait longer?

3. In (my) errors Maxima presented error messages
such as

Cannot find channel name "sock76"

Can't read "maximaSocket". No such variable

Error reading "sock76" connection reset by peer.

These errors were not (at least frequently) present with release 5.5.
Moreover, sometimes there were difficulties to restart Maxima from 
the menu. 

4. Frequently, the new test version failed and I had to use Alt+Ctrl+Del
or even close the computer by force.

5. Once the new version led me directly to the tcl console (in front
of XMaxima) without being able to leave it. (I must confess I frequently 
had other programs open including Maxima 5.9.0 itself: two simultaneous
processes. This has been easily possible with 5.5).

6. It is my impression that other Windows programs (Outlook) and
Maxima 5.5 itself required much more time to get loaded now (i.e.
after my having used 5.9.0, they became very slow even when 
having left it). I had to switch off the computer to come back to 
the usual speed. (Of  course, this is just my impression).

7. Finally, the two serious "usual" bugs of Maxima 5.5 i.e. quit() does
not work (in my computer) and writefile("test"), closefile() do not 
prepare a real "test" file remain valid under the present test release.
(A "test" file without a content, 0 bytes, is again created and present!) 

It is my impression that David is almost finished with the new Windows
binary release, but, if possible, I would like that the above (perhaps few
more) minor problems could be resolved before the official Windows
binary release of 5.9.0 perhaps next week. (I understand that point 7
may be a difficult one and the fixing of these bugs may be postponed 
until release 5.9.1.)

Naturally, the above points may be present under Windows Millenium
only (and the situation be much better with Windows 98, NT or XP for 
example). I do not know!

I am grateful for the availabililty of Maxima 5.9.0 in Windows and I plan
to extensively use it in its official version. I may also proceed to
additional tests this afternoon. (Now I have to go to work and I am
already late! . . . )

Congratulations for the release of Maxima 5.9.0 and many thanks again!
(After a little more effort everything will be perfect! Thank you!)

Best regards from Patras,

Nikos