Argh! I have an up-to-date Maxima (5.17.1) and was trying to load
to_poly_solve. Unfortunately, the loadfile is called topoly_solver (remove
an underbar, add an 'r'). It took me half an hour to figure this out.
How could I be so stupid? Well, for one, the name of the loadfile has
apparently changed over time, and more recent references to it on the
mailing list call the loadfile to_poly_solver (still not to_poly_solve). For
another, our help functions (?? solve, apropos("solve")) don't include any
information about to_poly_solve or most other optional packages. Finally, if
I wanted to download this file a la carte (in order to get the most recent
version or to get a new package), there is no straightforward way to do that
(you have to go into CVS).
Some suggestions for sparing other users my pain:
1) When a loadfile changes name, leave a stub behind with the old name that
prints a warning that the file has been moved, and then loads it from the
new location. This is easy to do.
2) Include at least a one-line description of all share functions (not
including contrib) in the main help library, mentioning what file to load
them from. This requires some labor, but not specialized knowledge.
3) Add some specific help functionality to help find share files. This
requires some programming as well as as more documentation data.
4) When a load file is loaded, full documentation should come with it. I
haven't looked at the help system, so I don't know how hard this would be.
5) Add some easy way to load up-to-date share files from the sourceforge
server without requiring CVS knowledge. The R system includes functions to
install and update packages (and their prerequisites) so you neither have to
be a systems programmer nor have to reinstall the whole system every time
one package is updated. This requires real work, especially if it's going to
be cross-platform.
Just some ideas from a cranky old-timer.
-s