hello steve,
> This doesn't work with Maxima 5.9.1;
> instead the session hangs waiting for input, like this:
> 2 2 2 2
> Is (z + r2 - 2 r2 + 1) (z + r2 + 2 r2 + 1)
> positive or negative?
>
> Even in 5.9.0, batch("...") gave the "wrong" behavior;
> only the pipe worked, and now
> that fails too.
>
> Is there a workaround?
asksign eventually calls RETRIEVE, which reads *QUERY-IO*,
which is a synonym stream for *TERMINAL-IO*.
so i guess the reason that maxima < input.mac
doesn't work is that the file input stream is different from *QUERY-IO*.
(i don't know how it could have worked in the past.)
you might try cat input.mac | maxima ,
i believe that hides the fact that the input is coming from a file;
that might make the input come through *TERMINAL-IO*.
just a guess -- i didn't try it.
a larger question is whether RETRIEVE should read *QUERY-IO*.
at the moment i'm not seeing a motivation to read a stream other
than the one the input is coming from.
a still larger question is whether asksign should be invoked in
a noninteractive mode. i believe the answer is no. i don't have
any replacement yet, though.
sorry i can't be more helpful,
robert dodier