some editing tools for maxima /Grumpy old man..

Since I would prefer to use emacs as a front end, perhaps I should try to
justify out loud why I think this is OK. Whereas I object to excessive Make
and Perl and C++ and ....
 
1. Downloading or installing or building Maxima does not depend on emacs.
2. Running Maxima (console style) does not depend on emacs.
3. I personally use emacs for many other things too, including writing
papers.  I can cut and paste TeX from Maxima to other buffers in a
productive and natural way. So this is not an extra download, an extra
burden, etc,  FOR ME.   And I'm not imposing it on anyone else.  I'm not
requiring someone else to download cygwin or MikTeX or ...

4.  As it happens, if I want to look at the textual (unparsed) form of
earlier commands, I can easily do this in the emacs buffer.  I can also save
the commands, or some subset of them, this way.  I can also have another
buffer with a "batch" file of commands, and iteratively debug them. I think
this is the right way to deal with "going back and redoing a command" -- by
running a batch file  (whose first line should "kill" all the data built up
in the running, to save space and keep the sequence of commands repeatable.)

I'm sure I could go on at more length about this; and maybe someone could
validly claim that a UI like wxmaxima or xmaxima  is "just like emacs" for
some people. So maybe it is just what I am used to using vs. other peoples'
preferences, to some extent.

RJF