Sheldon,
> Is there any documentation on how to develop packages?
>
> For instance, how does on use the command
> (in-package :maxima)
This is a general Lisp development question, and unfortunately there
is no short answer. The only thing I can suggest is to find an
introductory text for Lisp programming.
Be that as it may, Maxima doesn't use the Lisp package system
very much (although that could change). In particular, Maxima
packages don't necessarily correspond to Lisp packages.
So the Lisp package system may not be an issue.
> what does one have to do to ansi common lisp code to get it to work
> in maxima?
I guess this must mean, how to modify a Lisp program to cope with
Maxima objects (e.g. Maxima functions, Maxima matrices, etc).
Unfortunately this doesn't have a short answer either.
> Can someone send me a list of functions are special to maxima,
> (e.g. mfuncall)
No such list exists to the best of my knowledge.
> and which need to
> be changed from some particular version of common lisp?
If some Maxima function doesn't work right in some Lisp
implementation, that is a bug.
> I know that the various lisps are different. So, it would be nice
> to pick one (say gcl or cmucl, etc) and describe the porting
> procedures for that one.
I'm not much in favor of implementation-specific Maxima documentation.
We have enough trouble coping with Common Lisp
(mostly common, but not entirely).
Hope this helps,
Robert