Maxima + external C libraries, was: CoCoA and Maxima



On 12/20/08, Daniel Monte Alto <danmonalto at yahoo.es> wrote:

>  I know that there is a pogram  CoCoa for working with ideals and Groebner
> basis, it is a very good tool that I have used several times.
>
>   The CoCoA team is making a library in C++ to use as a service (via socket,
> etc). There is also version 4.7
> standalone.
>
>   Is  there  a simple  way to link maxima and CoCoA? 1.- perhaps using
> foreign  function  interface FFI with C++  in Lisp, 2.-  via socket.

There are many interesting & useful libraries written in C,
CoCoA being one of them. Maxima could link to such libraries
via FFI. The main roadblock thus far has been the lack of a common
FFI among the Lisp varieties of interest. CFFI works for many Lisp
varieties but not GCL. However, ECL is a potential replacement for GCL,
and CFFI works with ECL, if I remember correctly.

By "potential replacement for GCL" I mean (1) runs on Windows and
(2) faster than Clisp.

If you want to experiment w/ connecting CoCoA to Maxima via CFFI,
I would be very interested to hear about it. There is a LOT to gain by
using external libraries.

best

Robert Dodier