On 10/15/07, pol <linux_milano at yahoo.it> wrote:
> I have noticed only output is saved by the 'writefile' command.
>
> Setting my file name returns:
> (%i2) writefile("/tmp/maxima-log");
> (%o2) false
> (%i3)
>
> Is that what is expected?
Maxima writefile calls the Lisp DRIBBLE function, and for better
or worse (mostly worse) the behavior of DRIBBLE is not specified
by the Common Lisp standard. So implementations can and do
make different choices about how DRIBBLE works. Maxima
makes some assumptions about how it works but clearly it
has guessed wrong for whatever Lisp implementation you're using.
I guess Maxima should try harder to do the right thing for
each Lisp implementation (or figure out some other way to
implement writefile).
Also it is possible that some DRIBBLE implementations are broken.
What does build_info() show, by the way?
best
Robert Dodier