in search of a userdir, was: plot2d cannot create maxout.gnuplot

hello vadim, you wrote:

> Some write permission problem was my primary suspect.
> And as far as I understand this is the case.  A bit
> strange that the problem shoved up only after some
> Windows patches but this doesn't matter.
> The fact that Plot2/3d damps data files in some quite
> random place is bad.  And this is actually bad on both
> Windows and UNIX.  Especially on Windows since
> maxout.gnuplot directory depends even on the xmaxima
> shortcut location.  If xmaxima is invoked from
> menu - one place, the same shortcut copied on
> user desktop - another.  So writing maxout.*
> files in some definite location in user's directory
> is definitely right idea.  But I'm only not so sure
> that maxima-userdir
> 
> $HOME/.maxima on UNIX
> %USERPROFILE%\maxima on Windows
> 
> is the proper place.  As Valker mention this directory
> may be not existent.  What about user home directory?
> Just $HOME or %USERPROFILE% respectively.

$HOME or %USERPROFILE% is OK by me.
so is /tmp or c:\temp; however that is problematic, as it is not
guaranteed that c:\temp exists, so far as i know.

can someone make a patch to (1) assign a userdir variable if one
is not already assigned, and (2) modify plot2d/plot3d to write
the output file to the user directory (whatever is decided upon) ?

when this problem is resolved, i want to go ahead with the 5.9.2 release.
conversely, if this problem is not resolved, i am inclined to go ahead
anyway -- a lot of stuff has changed since 5.9.1 and the benefit of
allowing users to access the new version outweighs the lack of a
fix for this particular problem. 

all the best,
robert dodier