Maxima requires python but doesn't check nor report its abscence



  Hello!

In a number of environments (pkgsrc anywhere, starting on NetBSD and
DragonFly, ending on AIX) there's no "python" program, it is usually
called "python24", "python25", "python26" and so on. Maxima silently
calls "python" deep inside, but it doesn't check its presense at
configure stage, hence no warnings when it can't find python nor hooks
to help finding proper binary. Could this be changed somehow?

While here, it would be nice not to hardcode "/tmp" and honour TMPDIR
settings.

Draft changes:

--- doc/info/extract_categories.sh.orig	2007-12-29 20:15:26.000000000 +0300
+++ doc/info/extract_categories.sh	2010-08-09 20:57:47.000000000 +0400
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 TARGET_TEXI=$TARGET.texi
 
-WORKING_DIRECTORY=`mktemp -d /tmp/maxima-texinfo-categories-XXXXXX`
+WORKING_DIRECTORY=`mktemp -d ${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/maxima-texinfo-categories-XXXXXX`
 cp -R *.texi figures $WORKING_DIRECTORY
 d=`pwd`
 cd $WORKING_DIRECTORY
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
   | awk -F '$' -f $d/extract_categories1.awk \
   > tmp-make-categories.py
 
-python tmp-make-categories.py
+${PYTHONBIN:-python} tmp-make-categories.py
 
 sed 's/^@bye//' $TARGET_TEXI > tmp-target.texi
 echo '@node Documentation Categories' >> tmp-target.texi


-- 
HE CE3OH...