Hello,
> I am currently exploring the Maxima package via wxMaxima and am trying
> to understand how I can install the package, "draw".
>
> I downloaded all the mac and lisp files from:
>
> "http://maxima.cvs.sourceforge.net/maxima/maxima/share/draw/";
>
> and placed them in a directory called "draw" under the directory:
>
> "C:\Program Files\Maxima-5.9.3.99rc2\share\maxima\5.9.3.99rc2\share\"
>
This is a very old version and many things have changed since then. In
general, I think your best choice is to update to version 5.14.
With respect to package draw, its current version is incompatible with
such an old Maxima version, due to some changes in string handling. You
also should have gnuplot 4.2 or newer on your system.
> I then tried "load("draw")" and load("draw.lisp") in wxMaxima but got:
>
> "Could not find `draw' using paths in
> file_search_maxima,file_search_lisp, ........."
>
> I presumed that my new "draw" directory had to be part of the directory
> list contained in the variables mentioned.
>
> I then used load(".../draw.lisp"); where ... was the new "draw"
> directory and got a message that :
>
> "Load failed for C:/Program
> Files/Maxima-5.9.3.99rc2/share/maxima/5.9.3.99rc2/share/draw/draw.lisp
> -- an error. Quitting. To debug this try debugmode(true);"
>
> This seemed to indicate that the file had been found but that the actual
> loading had failed.
>
> Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong please?
You have two options:
1.- Copy the files directly in one of the existing folders (don't create
a new one); for example, in share/contrib
2.- In case you prefere to allocate them in a new draw folder, as you
have already done, add the path to variable file_search_lisp (write "?
file_search_lisp" for documentation)
If you update Maxima, nothing of this is necessary. In any case, I don't
think you could make anything with draw and Maxima 5.9.3.
hth
--
Mario Rodriguez Riotorto
http://www.telefonica.net/web2/biomates