Subject: how to pass the name of a variable as argument?
From: Robert Dodier
Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 22:33:49 -0600
On 5/14/08, Stavros Macrakis <macrakis at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> I think it would be a fascinating design exercise to see if the
> advantages of the Python language could be combined with the
> advantages of the Maxima language. I know that Python is very
> extensible, but I doubt that it is extensible enough to incorporate
> Maxima's punning.
Yeah --- Python has a lot going for it, but it lacks the code=data
principle, which Maxima inherits from Lisp, and which is the most
important feature of Lisp for Maxima. I suspect it would be
necessary to modify Python to make it a suitable user language
for Maxima, but I am hoping that we can get most of the way there
by using a Python implementation in Lisp, the sole example of
which seems to be CLPython. A port of CLPython to SBCL is in
progress; I'll give it a try when it's done.
best
Robert Dodier