I think there is a bigger issue here, that is, what is Maxima. I
consider it a implementation of a language Macsyma, whose syntax and
semantics has been defined over the course of several years,
in many different ways. Much of the semantics is not specific to the
language, it is just
the way various mathematical concepts are defined. For that reason, I
think that the time
is ripe for a formal definition of the language, and a division of the
implementation into those
parts that can be written in Macsyma, and translated, and primitives
which should be reimplemented in
common lisp, using more modern technology, and the lessons learned in
the past several years.
Dan Stanger