maxima won't start on Mac: neither prebuilt bin nor fink

On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 9:50 PM, Robert Dodier <robert.dodier at gmail.com>wrote:

> On 11/13/10, Gary Pajer <gary.pajer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > aca8639d:~ gpajer$ rmaxima
> > Maxima 5.21.1 http://maxima.sourceforge.net
> > using Lisp SBCL 1.0.37
> > Distributed under the GNU Public License. See the file COPYING.
> > Dedicated to the memory of William Schelter.
> > The function bug_report() provides bug reporting information.
> >
> > stdin:112:incorrect syntax: Missing )
>
> Hmm. My guess that Maxima is trying to load an init-maxima.mac
> or init-maxima.lisp file which has a bug in it.
>

can't find a file by that name


> Remove the offending file, if any, or maybe tell Maxima to look
> elsewhere for it via --userdir=/tmp


this works!


> or --init=foobar
>


this doesn't.    So at least I have a workaround, even if I don't understand
it. I'll poke around tomorrow when I'm awake.
Thanks.  BTW, I don't understand your lisp code below: are you asking a
question, or making a statement?


> (assuming you have no foobar.lisp or foobar.mac).
>
> > Maxima encountered a Lisp error:
> >
> >  attempt to THROW to a tag that does not exist: MACSYMA-QUIT
>
> Looks like MACSYMA-TOP-LEVEL in src/macsys.lisp processes
> the init file outside of the loop which catches MACSYMA-QUIT.
> But then what is the effect of
>
>     (with-simple-restart (macsyma-quit "Maxima top-level")
>       (macsyma-top-level input-stream batch-flag))))))
>
> in CL-USER::RUN (src/init-cl.lisp) ?? I guess it didn't catch it.
>
> best,
>
> Robert Dodier
>