Soren,
> I searched the web to see if it was possible to access maxima via
> dll files on windows, but without luck - so presumably it isn't.
I would like to see such a scheme, but there is none at present,
and making it happen is no small problem, so far as I can see.
If you are a Lisp programmer & you are interested in working
on this problem, let us know.
The usual means of communicating between a GUI and Maxima
is through a socket. All existing GUI's are based on this scheme,
to the best of my knowledge.
> My specific interest is in creating a small GUI for maxima as
> an alternative to xmaxima.
There have been various GUI's created for Maxima.
See http://maxima.sourceforge.net/relatedprojects.shtml .
Maybe you can adapt one of these for your purposes.
HTH
Robert Dodier