Maxima allows you to define a "setting" function for a symbol as its
"assign" property, so setting $xxx to &foo can also set xxx to "foo". Look
at the code around msetchk in mlisp.lisp.
-s
On 6/12/06, Vadim V. Zhytnikov <vvzhy at mail.ru> wrote:
>
> Robert Dodier writes:
> >> > On the other hand *maxima-tempdir* and *maxima-userdir*
> >> > are dynamic run-time variables. They depend on concrete
> >> > Maxima execution environment. It is quite natural that
> >> > user may want to reset them.
> >
> > Yes, I can see this. So exposing these 2 is OK by me.
> >
> >> > But I see one trouble
> >> > namely - Maxima strings which are essentially symbols.
> >
> > My recommendation here is to make functions
> > set_maxima_tempdir, set_maxima_userdir which handle
> > the strings as needed. These functions can also assign
> > any dependent variables (I don't know if there are any at present).
> >
>
> Well, it is possible but only as ugly temporary
> hack. The ultimate solution is make Maxima
> strings to be lisp strings instead of &symbols.
> IMHO current Maxima strings design (I know historical
> background) is extremely inconvenient and the sooner
> we change this the better. So other strategy may be
>
> 1. leave thigh unchanged
>
> 2. add various *maxima-foo* lisp variables
> to documentation together with
> :lisp (setq *maxima-foo* ...)
> hack
>
> 3. wait for real strings and then change
> *maxima-tempdir* to maxima_tempdir option
> variable
>
> --
> Vadim V. Zhytnikov
>
> <vvzhy at mail.ru>
> <vvzhy at netorn.ru>
>
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