are you talking about the common lisp package system
or a new user-accessible package system for maxima?
The latter would probably require mimicking the common
lisp package systems (or perhaps a better version of
such a thing) with naming conventions, import/export,
hiding, etc. There is a package system in Mathematica
which has generally been painful for the novice, and
perhaps useful to the expert. I think this is similar
to the common lisp situation.
I also wonder how one deals with the properties of an old
symbol that the user redefines. Does that go in a new package?
How?
Tellsimp rules for built-in functions fit in this category, I
think.
RJF
James Amundson wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-04-25 at 08:57, Raymond Toy wrote:
>
>>Maybe now would be a good time to implement the MAXIMA and MAXIMA-USER
>>Lisp packages that someone tried out some time ago. Everything typed
>>into the command line would be in the MAXIMA-USER package.
>>
>>Then built-in rules would be in the MAXIMA package, which is already
>>true for everything currently in MAXIMA, and all user-defined rules
>>would be in the MAXIMA-USER package.
>
>
> On Fri, 2003-04-25 at 03:52, Martin RUBEY wrote:
>
>>I think that this is rather a "package" problem. I think that there should
>>not be a distinction between builtin and not-builtin functions, but rather
>>a package "user" where (per default) all the functions defined in a
>>session go into.
>
>
> I find the proposal to create a separate maxima-user package a more
> compelling solution to the kill problem than my own proposal. There
> would be many benefits beyond the simplification of the kill code. I
> think Martin would also like to see a subdivision into more packages,
> but I think we can start with a separation into maxima and maxima-user
> packages. Martin, do you agree?
>
> Separating the packages may have more far-reaching consequences, but I
> think we can try it and see how it works out.
>
> I don't think I'm the right person to do the package separation -- at
> the very least, it would take me a long time. Would anyone like to
> volunteer?
>
> --Jim
>
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