how to pass the name of a variable as argument?



Barton Willis wrote:
> -----maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu wrote: -----
> 
>> The maxima translate function also kind of points the way too, since the
>> translated code sprinkles special declarations all over to make the
>> variables all special.  Removing those would give us lexical behavior,
>> but only for translated code.  I would think something similar could be
>> done with the interpreter.
>>
>> Ray
> 
> I've had this though too---if we had a reliable Maxima to CL
> translator we could translate all inputs into CL. If the translator
> was flexible and easy to modify, we could have lexical behavior too.
> And we would banish the differences between interpreted and translated
> Maxima.
> 
> Of course that's not the only way to give Maxima lexical behavior.
> Like most projects, I'd guess that 90% of such a translator would be
> easy to write.

Didn't Stavros say he wrote a translater long ago when he was a high 
school student?  Perhaps he can tell us how well it worked.

I think there will be some design issues, but nothing that can't be solved.

Ray