>> That would make Maxima an even bigger mess.
>> We have a pretty good way to get Fortran code running, namely f2cl.
>> I don't see why we would want to retreat to platform and Lisp specific
>> solutions, given that we have a pretty good chance of getting stuff to
>> work on multiple platform/Lisp combinations.
>>
>> I think you've seriously understated the work involved in getting
>> some library linked into Maxima (be it Lisp, .so, .dll, whatever).
>> It is certainly not something we can expect typical users to carry out.
>> It is a significant effort even for the Maxima developers.
>>
This is sad. In modern scripting languages (like python or perl) it is a
trivial to use
an external library, just run the headers through SWIG and you are done.
An usually one can even call functions in an external library directly
(although this is less safe).
I think the developers of the various lisp compilers should get their
act together.
Michel