Building maxima / mailing lists / sym package

> Regardless of the details, at the heart of this is an expression
> of frustration that we should all take to heart. 

I do think so, too.

> Instructions like "build x lisp only from CVS with version n of gcc
> but not version m before you build version z of maxima" etc. makes
> me think we are moving in a way that's getting a little out of hand.

> It's ok for the core developers (perhaps), 

Well, maybe I was very lucky, but I found CVS VERY simple to use and had
no troubles building GCL nor Maxima, on the other hand I do follow the
list since quite some time now. (Still I'm certainly not a core
developer...) Moreover, I'm not using xmaxima, and certainly not
MSWindows.

> Perhaps one of the problems is that we are miximg intro/devleopers/math/GUI
> subjects into one mailing list: "Get x from CVS" should never appear on a
> non-developer's list, IMHO, and when it does, the time has come to break up
> the list.
> 
> I suggest something like
> 	maxima-announce
> 	maxima-users
> 	maxima-developers
> 	maxima-cvs
> 	maxima-ui
> as a breakup of this list. It can be broken up into the sourceforge
> mailing lists which are now gatewayed both directions into sourceforge
> newsgroups. Newsgroups I find much easier to read.

I did suggest something similar, but still more detailed (probably too 
detailed) some time ago.

http://www.ma.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2001/001174.html

I'm not sure yet whether I will move to Axiom, but for my time with 
Maxima I renew my offer to make a digest of the mail archive. (Provided 
that mail is more or less properly tagged) I find it VERY annoying, that 
sometimes I remember some issue discussed on the list and find my self 
spending quite some time before I find it again...

Also I think that after release 5.9 we really should think about 
changes that might be worth some effort, but might not be compatible with 
earlier versions. I'm thinking especially of the scoping issue described 
in the following threads:

http://www.ma.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2002/001179.html
http://www.ma.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2002/001181.html

http://www.ma.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2002/001188.html
http://www.ma.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2002/001190.html
http://www.ma.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2002/001191.html

http://www.ma.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2002/001342.html
http://www.ma.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2002/001343.html
http://www.ma.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2002/001344.html 
http://www.ma.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2002/001345.html

In a different vein, I offer to translate the (french) documentation of
sym, if there is no translation yet and if there is somebody interested...
(I do speak a little french, so I won't do it for myself!) In any case,
sym1.mac should be replaced by the following, because of the restructured
share directory... (note that there are two different files permut.lisp,
one in share/sym, another one in share/combinatorics)

Most important however:
Thanks for all the great work! I'm really really happy to be able to use a 
free cas by now!

Martin

/* Fichier sym1.mac
                     Version 02 Mars 1999 sans autoload

;       ***************************************************************
;       *                    MODULE SYM                               *
;       *       MANIPULATIONS DE FONCTIONS SYMETRIQUES                *
;       *        (version02: Commonlisp pour Maxima)                  *
;       *                                                             *
;       *                ----------------------                       *
;       *                  Annick VALIBOUZE                           *
;       *                    GDR MEDICIS                              *
;       *  (Mathe'matiques Effectives, De'veloppements Informatiques, *
;       *           Calculs et Ingenierie, Syste`mes)                 *
;       *         Laboratoire LIP6 (Equipe Calcul Formel)             *
;       *                 Universite' Paris 6,                        *
;       *        4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05.               *
;       *              e-mail : avb@sysal.ibp.fr                      *
;       ***************************************************************
*/

if ev(schur2comp)='schur2comp then schur2comp : pol;
if ev(direct)='direct then direct : puissances;
if ev(oper)='oper then  oper :  meval; 
if ev(kak)='kak then  kak : 1;
if ev(elem)='elem then elem : 1;
if ev(pui)='pui then pui: 1;
if ev(pui2ele)='pui2ele then pui2ele : girard;
if ev(somrac)='somrac then somrac: puissances;
if ev(resulsym)='resulsym then resulsym: 14;

print(resolvante);
if ev(resolvante)='resolvante then resolvante: generale;
print(resolvante);
if ev(directnew)='directnew then directnew: parallele ;

print("");
print("NOTE: To compile the system do");
print(" cd ",chemin, ";make");

load("sym/macros.lisp");
load("sym/util.lisp");
load("sym/lecteur.lisp");
load("sym/ecrivain.lisp");
load("sym/operations.lisp");

load("sym/arite.lisp");
load("sym/elem.lisp");
load("sym/pui.lisp");
load("sym/chbase.lisp");
load("sym/schur.lisp");
load("sym/direct.lisp");
load("sym/kak.lisp");
load("sym/partpol.lisp");
load("sym/multmon.lisp");
load("sym/permut.lisp");
load("sym/treillis.lisp");
load("sym/resolv1.lisp");
batchload("sym/resolvante.mac");