describe & newline problems, was: proposed release schedule for maxima 5.9.3

hello volker,

> The missing carriage return only occurs in ms-windows xmaxima 5.9.2,
> not in the command line version 5.9.2 and not in xmaxima 5.9.1.
>
> so something must have been changed from 5.9.1 to 5.9.2 in the
> ms-windows xmaxima. someone must know.

there were a couple of related changes. one is that the
processing of input and output prompts was modified.
the other is that the placement of new lines was modified.

xmaxima itself was not modified so far as i know.
xmaxima is copying its input to a maxima process
and copying the output to its display, so it would be
easy for changes in the input/output streams to
affect xmaxima (and other graphical interfaces).

a bug of this kind is likely to be quite subtle.
it would be terrific if you could investigate and
formulate a recommended correction.

> secondly, I wonder wether function sprint is commented out
> in plot.lisp in 5.9.2, in 5.9.1 it was available. What is the reason
> for that? Who did the change? Is this related somehow?

sprint wasn't a very complicated function; i'm guessing it
was introduced at some point because it was convenient
in the plotting code and removed when it didn't seem
useful anymore. the cvs log for plot.lisp should have
the story.

i think this is pretty close to equivalent:

sprint ([L]) := print (apply (sconcat, join (L, makelist (" ", i, 1,
length (L)))));

i doubt if the xmaxima problem has anything to do with sprint.

hope this helps,
robert dodier