Re: Maxima and LAPACK issues
1) Why is this an issue - Numerical computation of Eigensystems etc is
allready done fairly well with ARPACK etc etc.
2) Maxima should concentrate on Symbolic computations, equation
manipulation and reduction, tensor forms, etc etc - it is, after all,
a CAS.
3) If you folks really want to support numerical computations it makes
more sense to improve interfaces to existing libs etc
under tools such as Texmacs etc etc. If I need to compute
numerics then I will go first to an established library - I will not use
Maxima
for any solid number crunching exercise - this is allmost
cetainly what maxima is not intended for. And since I could not see
anybody
writing Lisp solver for large systems of algebraic equations
(due to better design of other languages in this respect) the point of
implementing
numerical solvers (even for small systems) in Maxima seems rather
pointless apart from being a nice programming exercise.
I really think that it is more useful to concentrate on getting the
intended functionality in Maxima correct and investing effort there.
What is currently
in CVS is not bug free and I would hate to see a very usefull tool
stagnate because its caretakers have extended the functionality of
Maxima without having the resources and manpower to
effective manage and maintain what is allready existing. Without wishing
to be rude it is better to be a master of a small area than a very poor
global generalist.