Newbie Question: String variable type and filename

Good day,

I have a small problem related to string variables. (I have read the Maxima
book and googled, but I could not find how this works.)

I want to set the filename as a string variable, and use it in the
subsequent calls to the "tex" function, like this:

outputfile: string("D:\\docs\\maxima\\somefile.tex")$
tex(" -- Some Output -- ", outputfile)$

I have also tried:
outputfile: "D:\\docs\\maxima\\somefile.tex"$

But I get no output in the specified tex file. 

When I do not use the variable, but specify the outputfile like: 

tex(" -- Some output -- ", "D:\\docs\\maxima\\somefile.tex")$

it works perfectly well.

Could you please indicate where to look for this information? Maybe you have
specific tips?

Thanks,
			Goran