configure.lisp patch



On 28 Nov 2006, at 22:26, Robert Dodier wrote:

> Hi Greg,
>
>> So, here's a patch for the latter. Sorry for the barrage.
>
> Thanks for sending the revised patch. Help me understand what's
> at stake here. What is the functionality that is enabled by this  
> patch?
> I've forgotten what this is about. In a similar vein, after applying
> the patch, how can I tell if it is working as expected?
> I read the patch but I wasn't able to puzzle out what it's about.

The original code only worked if you used the current directory (the  
default value) for maxima-directory. If the current directory wasn't  
the correct one, it would be unable to find the *.in files that the  
substitutions are applied to.

My followup was to remove my assumption that the directory used for  
maxima-directory would be CL-style (trailing (back)slash), and  
account for directories entered either with or without said (back)slash.

The way to test this is to run your lisp from a directory other than  
the desired maxima-directory and see what happens. It should work  
with the patch, but should complain about not being able to find *.in  
with the original code.

I came across this while trying to make Maxima ASDF-Installable,  
since in that case the maxima-directory is not likely to be the  
current directory.