David,
> I have built a 5.9.2 windows package using gcl-2.6.6
>
> I needed to install gcc header file (patch below).
This may be peculiar to your build environment since
neither Barton Willis nor Vadim Zhytnikov reported it.
What exactly is your build environment?
(Barton and Vadim -- what is yours?)
> With this change I get clean testsuite runs with installed
> xmaxima and command line maxima. I confirmed that example(additive)
> works for me in all cases.
OK, this is good news.
> The describe() function doesn't work with installed command line
> maxima, but does work with installed xmaxima, although the search
> path seems correct.
Well, I'm confused by this, but I'm not sure we need to get to the
bottom of this right now.
What happens when you try to install the precompiled maxima-5.9.2.exe ?
(http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4933)
For what it's worth, I have verified that for the above precompiled .exe,
describe works as expected in command line Maxima,
in both Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
For what it's worth,
Robert Dodier