(semi)Successful Maxima 5.9.0 installation under Windows Millennium

Hello,

> 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!)

It is possible to install David's archives in any directory and run Xmaxima from 
it with the following script:

rem --- File maxima.bat v1.0a, 09/09/2002, created 09/09/2002 (michel.lavaud@univ-
orleans.fr)
rem # Put the main Maxima directory in env var MAXIMADIR:
rem # The installation directory MAXIMADIR can be any directory without blanks,
rem # for example "d:\maxima" or "J:\ProgramFiles\maxima" but not "J:\Program 
Files\maxima".
set MAXIMADIR=p:\Programs\maxima-5.9
rem # Replace "\" by "/" in MAXIMADIR, to get MAXIMA_DIRECTORY:
set MAXIMA_DIRECTORY=p:/Programs/maxima-5.9
rem # Run Xmaxima 
%COMSPEC% /cstart %MAXIMADIR%\bin\xmaxima
rem # Close command window
exit
rem --- End maxima.bat


> 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?

You must not close the Xmaxima window with its close button, as with version 5.5. 
You have first to quit maxima.exe from within Xmaxima by typing "quit();" then 
close Xmaxima with its close button. Otherwise, there are maxima processes that 
remain running. If it is the case, you can kill the process(es) by typing Ctrl-
Alt-Del and select process(es) "maxima"


> 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.

These problems might be the result of several maxima processing already running. 
Could you retry with only one maxima process running?
 
> 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).

Might be also the consequence of several maxima processes running in parallel, I 
did not see the problem (but I did not test very much either, so maybe you are 
right :-)

> 7. Finally, the two serious "usual" bugs of Maxima 5.5 i.e. quit() does
> not work (in my computer)

Yes it does close maxima, cf. above but not xmaxima.tcl.

Best wishes

Michel.Lavaud@univ-orleans.fr
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