Dear Leo and list,
Thank you, that was very helpful; I was able to fix my problem!
> ?set\-pathnames();
> it's defined in src/init-cl.lisp. Leo
>
As a followup, I noticed something while looking at set-pathnames();
all variables sort of bootstrap when it is called, with the exception
of *maxima-lang-subdir*, which only is called when Maxima is actually
run (as opposed to used as a library), via set-locale-subdir().
This means that when set-pathnames() is called (as a library call), it
bombs because it expects *maxima-lang-subdir* to be NIL or some
pathname, but instead the variable is unbound.
Is there a way for Lisp to catch the unbound case as an exception and
at that point do
(setq *maxima-lang-subdir* nil)
for this situation? Unfortunately I don't know the syntax of how Lisp
handles exceptions - maybe "unless"?
I have made this SF bug #2892710, at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2892710&group_id=4933&atid=104933
.