How to use Maxima from within C++ program (CGI)?

The main issue in my view is that the C++ program is going to send/receive strings of characters.

If the strings of characters are just numeric, then you are not using maxima very much.
If the strings of characters are symbolic names, operations, etc,  then you are either doing trivial things with them,
like printing them,  or you are writing, in C++, a parser. Which suggests that you should just be writing in Lisp.

If you are just printing stuff, e.g. into html, then you could learn how to do so from lisp, and be done with it.

The advantages you get from making a C++ interface are
(1) you know C++ and don't know Lisp.  
(2) you have some old programs you want to use in C++.

The better solution is to (a) learn lisp and (b) use the old C++ programs by calling THEM FROM LISP.

I anticipate these suggestions will fall on deaf ears, but I figure it is worth stating, every so often.
RJF


----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Dodier <robert.dodier at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, August 7, 2007 6:14 pm
Subject: Re: [Maxima] How to use Maxima from within C++ program (CGI)?

> On 8/7/07, Yigal Asnis <yigalasnis at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > How can I use Maxima from within C++?
> >
> > By the way, two more general questions:
> > 1. May be there is better platform for using open
> > source math software like Maxima, SAGE, Pari, Yacas in
> > web site? May be PHP or Perl or other option?
> > 2. Where can I get more information about building web
> > site for interactive math with open source software?
> 
> I think there have been several projects to run Maxima as a
> back end for CGI output. Take a look at
> http://maxima.sourceforge.net/relatedprojects.shtml
> from which you might get some ideas.
> I think SAGE in particular could be a good source of ideas.
> 
> I suspect it's going to be easier to use a language with
> built-in regular expression functions. This might suggest
> Perl or Python. But Lisp would be a good choice because
> then you can call Maxima functions directly from your
> CGI program. Just replace the top-level processing loop
> with something that reads CGI inputs instead of the console.
> 
> The main problem with using Maxima as a computation engine
> is that Maxima asks questions sometimes (because it assumes
> there is always someone at the console). This problem has been
> handled in different ways by different projects. I don't know
> what is the best solution at present.
> 
> You might find share/contrib/maxima-server.lisp useful.
> It calls fork to launch Maxima sessions, so it is faster to
> start a new session than executing Maxima just once.
> maxima-server.lisp only works with SBCL.
> 
> HTH
> Robert Dodier
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