Is Maxima modular?...(and/or How learn source code?...)

> What is your objective in all this? The rational function
> manipulation code is in files with names that begin
> with RAT.

My objective is to see Maxima gain wider acceptance
and find some meaningful & interesting way for me to
contribute to that.

There are lots of ways I can contribute that have nothing
to do with being a CA expert..... I can work on documentation,
plotting, GUI interface and installation.  Creating a polished package
that would start to gain momentum at high school and junior
colleges would be a worthwhile stepping stone for Maxima
I'd be interested in supporting.

However, I'd feel more comfortable if I had some kind
of idea about the source code and architecture of Maxima.
I don't know what amount is realistic for me.

This brings up a concern..... I hope Maxima's goal
of cleaning up source code and adding comments is
feasible and attainable within at most a few years.
I'd love to help with that but that probably is not realistic
for a beginner.
Why do I care??? I don't know how many people understand
and develop on Maxima code but suppose something was
to happen to you and the rest of the crew.  If Maxima code
is not understandable by wider audience then Maxima would
effectively be lost forever.  I don't want that to happen.

Why do they say Maxima is a clone of Macsyma?? It is really
only a "half-clone" right??? The stuff before the fork is
the same and it is only the features added in last 20 years
(post-fork) that are "cloned" right?

Is the reason you mentioned the rational function (RAT*) code because you
are optimistic that one can understand Maxima quite well
if one limits one self to a subset of universe of possible
mathematical structures???  Because I am interested in serving
high school and junior college students, it would be really exciting
to me if I could at least understand source code for well behavied
functions, typical parameters, simple problems, etc.

Cheers,

Chris