Maxima 5.9.0.9beta1



Billinghurst, David (CALCRTS) writes:
> From: Vadim V. Zhytnikov
> 
>>>>2. Can we use gnuplot 4.0 as default plot routine?
>>>>It seems that we are permitted to package prebuilt
>>>>gnuplot executables with Maxima.  I know that Windows
>>>>port of Octave does this.
>>>
>>> 
>>>I am open to suggestions here.  I deliberately overrode
>>>the default plotting application so that xmaxima plotting
>>>works.  Have a look at the final line in 
>>>share/maxima/5.9.0.9beta1/share/maxima-init.lisp.  If you 
>>>delete that line then plotting will default to gnuplot.
>>>
>>
>>I've just copied wgnuplot.exe (wgnuplot.hlp and wgnuplot.mnu
>>may worth including too) into maxima /bin directory and
>>gnuplot plotting works fine with both xmaxima.exe and
>>maxima.bat.
> 
> 
> Thanks for testing this.  
> 
> My feeling is that the windows installers is already to big.
> I would prefer to leave things as they are but provide clear 
> instructions on how to set up gnuplot as the default.  
> However, I don't have strong feelings either way and will
> happily implement the concencus decision.
> 

I understand. But really I don't think that neither 15Mb nor
even 25Mb is too much for powerful general purpose CAS.
Compressed wgnuplot.{exe,hlp,mnu} is about 750% - this
is just 5% of total size.  It is practically nothing IMHO.

> 
>>>>3. It desirable to have access to maxima not only via
>>>>xmaxima.exe graphic shell but as simple console
>>>>application. 
>>>
>>>This will work if you edit bin/maxima.bat and change 
>>>the line "set prefix=...." to your installation directory.
>>>I tried to this with the installer, but I could not
>>>find a robust solution.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Actually it is necessary to "set maxima_prefix=<installation dir>"
>>and maxima.bat will works fine including describe and load commands.
>>I'm unfamiliar with inno setup installer but can it perform
>>such substitution for <installation dir> during installation
>>automatically?
> 
> 
> I am not very familiar with InnoSetup either :-)  
> 
> To date, I have not been able to do automatic substitution using InnoSetup.
> I have a DOS .bat file "solution" but it isn't robust.  I have also 
> tried including sed in the package and using that, but hit some issues
> with line termination characters.  We must have DOS line termination 
> in .bat files on Windows 95.
> 

My feeling is that we should try to resolve these issues
(path with spaces and maxima.bat) to make potential Windows
Maxima user happier :-)

-- 
      Vadim V. Zhytnikov

      <vvzhy@netorn.ru>