> Friends at Franz Inc have put up a web site that provides free
> computation time and access to a running binary of the current Maxima
> source using Allegro Common Lisp version 6.2. No money, no 'login',
> no hassle.
>
> This is intended to be a prototype computation engine, and so the
> interface is deliberately primitive. Connect to a socket and you get
> a command-line prompt (C1) and can send characters and receive them,
> for up to 100 CPU seconds. (That's actually a fair amount these
> days). The idea is to encourage the design of a maxima stand-alone
> computer algebra web "agent".
>
> What can you do? You can "type" error-free commands into the socket.
> Or have your application do so. Or you can put it into lisp mode with
> the to_lisp() command and shove any pieces of lisp you want into it
> that will change the nature of the interaction. e.g. motify the
> parser, display, etc. You can get back into maxima mode with the (run)
> command.
>
> If it looks like you will have a big package of interface stuff that
> you alway want to run in the server when you connect to it, we can put
> that in the sourceforge system and Franz will load that too.
>
> If it seems that the socket (or another socket on that machine) should
> be started up in some other mode, that is up for discussion.
>
> Right now you can visit the Maxima version 5.1.0 in Allegro CL
> at <telnet://maxima.franz.com> .
>
> Remember, this is a beta test of the setup and certainly does not
> represent what Franz Inc thinks is an appropriate user-oriented
> interface or developer environment, or even full-featured lisp (only
> modest amount of free space). In particular it does not provide
> permanent local storage for visitors.
>
> If it seems that the 100 cpu seconds and the amount of free space is a
> significant limitation, we can negotiate for more.
> RJF