>> Probably MAXIMA user either wants to build it from source distribution
>> by himself/herself, or do download prepared binaries.
>> I assume if the user downloads source distribution, (as opposed to
>> downloading binaries) then this user has reasonable *nix development
>> tools working properly.
>
>
> No, *nix development tools are not required to build a Maxima
> binary. It is possible to compile Maxima using only Lisp
> (as described in INSTALL.lisp). It is probably not very common
> but I see no reason to rule it out.
Compiling Maxima using instructions in INSTALL.lisp is actually my
preferred way.
Best regards,
Vadim.