Differences between Maxima and Macsyma and GPL vs. commercial version



Hi Stavros.

| Docstrings appear to currently be broken in GCL 2.5.0 on Windows.

I haven't got 2.5.0 at hand, but on 2.5.2 (Windows) they seem to be working,
as shown below.  If you can give me more details I'll try and reproduce the
problem here on 2.5.2.

For example, was your observation made in Maxima compiled with GCL or just
plain GCL?  Does the test below work for you?  A transcript of a
manifestation of the problem would be helpful too, thanks.

Cheers

Mike Thomas


***************************************************************************
>(defun test (a b) "add two numbers" (+ a b))

TEST

>(describe 'test)

TEST - internal symbol in USER package
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
TEST
[Function]
add two numbers
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-


>(describe '+)

+ - external symbol in LISP package
 value:
   (DESCRIBE 'TEST)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
+
[Function]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
+                                                          [Special
variable]

>From (+ gcl.info):

+                                                                [Function]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

   `+'  &rest numbers =>  sum

Arguments and Values::
......................

etc etc
***************************************************************************