[******** snip ***********]
> Hmm. Not sure what's going on here. The function openw is just:
>
> (defun $openw (file)
> (open
> (l-string file)
> :direction :output
> :if-exists :supersede
> :if-does-not-exist :create))
>
> So if the file exists, it should be silently clobbered.
>
> It is possible the definition of openw in your installation is different.
> You might try the above definition instead, if so.
>
> The behavior you reported might also be a bug in the Lisp implementation.
> What Lisp version are you using? (And what Maxima version?)
%i3) build_info();
Maxima version: 5.12.0
Maxima build date: 23:16 5/28/2007
host type: i686-pc-linux-gnu
lisp-implementation-type: CMU Common Lisp
lisp-implementation-version: 19c Fedora Extras release 7.fc6 (19C)
-sen