I think that the expressiveness of the language is an issue for humans
reading and writing programs. I agree that for the computer it doesn't make
much difference.
Case and cond could be implemented in the maxima language using macro
definitions and buildq, but for me it's faster to use lisp. If you are
saying that case and cond should be built in, then that's ok with me.
Otherwise load("casemac.lisp") will insert them, if you've stored the file
somewhere under the name "casemac.lisp"
You don't have to love lisp :-)
_____
From: Alasdair McAndrew [mailto:amca01 at gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 3:22 PM
To: fateman at cs.berkeley.edu; maxima list
Subject: Re: [Maxima] Extending maxima language
cond, elseif, case... it doesn't really matter, as they can all be used to
do much the same thing. But whatever is chosen, it should be implemented in
Maxima's own language, for the many bozos like myself who don't want to have
to bother with the underlying language of whatever CAS they are using (C,
C++, Lisp, etc). Besides which, I have no especial love for lisp.