How install/run MockMMA??? needs Maxima to run?

Mike Thomas wrote:
> Hi Chris.
> 
> 
>>README says to compile the
>>lisp code but I'm too green about LISP to know
>>what that means.
> 
> 
> You'll need to get a Lisp compiler that is supported by MockMMA - my guess
> is that ACL (Allegro Common Lisp) would be a good one - they have a free
> evaluation version.  If you don't know how to use the compiler then you've
> got to start at the bottom of the knowledge hill by reading the manual for
> your Lisp compiler and learning enough Lisp to get by on.
> 

There is no special reason for GCL or CLISP not to support MockMMA
except possibly for the confusion of upper and lowe case.  The 
brain-damaged ANSI CL committee made CL essentially all one case and
so imitating an upper/lower case language like Mathematica is messy.
Allegro CL has a setting that says to use upper and lower case which
makes things simpler. However, there are instructions on how to
use MockMMA in the predecessor to GCL.

Anyway, Mike's advice is essentially right, that you will have to
understand lisp.  When the MockMMA evaluator is given a command
to Integrate[Sin[x],x],  it does certain things. You will have to
understand at what point you should splice in a call to maxima's
routine for integration, and you will have to make whatever translations
of data are necessary from the MockMMA version,  which is probably
like (Sin X)  to Maxima's  which is probably like (($SIN) $X).

You might also want to use Maxima's display rather than MockMMA's.

So this all requires some effort and understanding.  I think it
beats writing Mathematica from scratch in C,  but of course I
already know lisp :)



> 
>>Does MockMMA need Maxima??
> 
> 
> No - it stands alone.
> 
> 
>>How does it interface with it then???
> 
> 
> CY/Richard or whomever was implying that you might like to write a binding
> between the MockMMA language and the Maxima mathematics engine.  That is not
> a simple task.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Mike Thomas.
> 
> 
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