revised describe function now on cvs branch



> 
> Thanks a lot for the good news. Please go ahead and commit your
> changes on the branch.

Done.

>> 1. Spanish describe-index.lisp contains """ entry
>> which naturally causes lisp error.  I see that you have
>> fixed similar problem for Portuguese by editing texinfo
>> sources.  But I wonder how to fix this problem once and
>> forever by modifying build_index? Otherwise problem will
>> recur in the future again and again.
> 
> Probably build_index.pl should replace " with \" .
> I'll make that modification.

Note that es translation in describe branch doesn't create
""" entry.  Try with .texi from head to reproduce the
problem.

>> 2. Second problem is more serious.  New describe doesn't work
>> properly in UTF8 locales.  It shows list of options as expected
>> but when I choose some item it shows something completely
>> unrelated.  This is probably due to the fact that build_index
>> is executed not in the UTF-8 locale.  At present I don't
>> know how to fix the issue.
> 
> Hmm. Maybe there need to be separate index files for UTF-8 and non-UTF-8.
> I really don't know much about that.

Maybe modified build_index script is required for UTF-8.
I'll try to understand what is going on this weekend.

> Can you tell me how to reproduce the behavior you are observing?

Just build and install maxima with sbcl and/or clisp and
with all four --enable-lang enabled.  Then try something like
LANG=es_ES konsole
or
LANG=es_ES.UTF-8 konsole
Run installed maxima in this console.
You may compare describe-index.lisp in es/pt vs es.utf8/pt.utf8.
UTF-8 versions looks almost perfectly OK numbers are weird.

> By the way I am working on Linux.

I know :-)

I work with Maxima chiefly on Linux too and
and switch to Windows only if I have to do something
with Windows Installer.

I don't expect any troubles with new describe on Windows
but I haven't tried it yet.

-- 
      Vadim V. Zhytnikov

       <vvzhy at mail.ru>
      <vvzhy at netorn.ru>