> One thing I'm not seeing is documentation of the LISP level
> description of all of the data structure, nor of all of the
> LISP functions and LISP macro.
Yes, we need more programmer's documentation. I am enclosing a section
I have already written (and first distributed last year) about internal
representation.
> But even documentation of simple procedures is missing. How
> do I load Lisp files for instance?
In Lisp, (load "filename") -- documentation at
http://www.lispworks.com/reference/HyperSpec/Body/f_load.htm#load; in
Maxima, load("filename") -- documentation at describe(load) or in the
Info file or at http://www.ma.utexas.edu/maxima/maxima_8.html#idx245. I
agree that the documentation is a bit arcane, with its mentions of
fassaved files etc.
> I tried compiling the simplification routine Dr.
> Fateman posted and when I finally got it to start compiling,
> the system crashed so hard that the restart menu couldn't get
> me a prompt back. I expect that there IS a way to recompile
> any routine safely while Maxima runs - this is LISP not C,
> but the documentation isn't clear on how to do anything like this.
In Lisp, you do not need to compile a routine to load it; you can load
it as Lisp source and run it interpretively. Did you try that first?
As for the compiled version, it's hard to help you without more details.
Could you please provide your full configuration information and the
procedure you followed that got you to the crash?
Hope we can help.
-s
Attached file: representation.html