Another experiment:
As before:
(%i1) for j : 1 thru 4 * 10^4 do sign(random(10) * x / 42 - random(10) *
y / 8 + random(100));
Maxima encountered a Lisp error:
Error in PROGN [or a callee]: Bind stack overflow.
Automatically continuing.
Now set dbtrace to t
(%i2) :lisp(setf dbtrace t);
T
You'll get pages and pages of stuff:
(%i2) sign(-5*x/9);
Clearing 0
marking 0 zero
.... <lots of stuff >
BW