On 6/23/2011 1:06 PM, dekleer at parc.com wrote:
>
> I see a number of emails about using Allegro. However, I downloaded
> the latest version and it seems to have many problems. I managed to
> get Macsyma to work, but its still fragile. Am I using a wrong
> version? I have Allegro 8.2 and 5.24.0. I used configure.lisp to
> create Maxima. A few of the problems are:
>
> -Case errors in package names, e.g., the source uses (in-package
> "BIGLOAT") and (in-package "bigfloat") interchangeably.
>
> -Share-subdirs.lisp does not get created. So I have to construct it
> by hand.
>
> -Some of the $file_... search pathnames are incorrect. Some of the
> pathnames have "//" which are not legal under Windows. Source of the
> problem seems to be whatever sets **maxima-userid**
>
> -Error handling (i.e., catch tags) does not work. Haven't debugged
> that yet.
>
> I'm willing to upload these and other fixes. But I suspect someone
> must have done this all before judging from the email traffic.
>
>
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I have built Maxima on Allegro a number of times, and it (Maxima) is not
entirely satisfactorily configured for Allegro
when Allegro is run in my favorite mode (in which upper and lower case
are used). But if I use Allegro in the upper-casifying "ANSI" mode,
which is, I think, the default for the free system, then it generally
works. I have not tried to bring up the interface to gplot or wxmaxima,
so I don't know if it works.
For some systems, a package name can appear as :bigfloat :BIGFLOAT
"BIGFLOAT" and be the same. I think it should be :bigfloat, but at least
it should always be the same.
I have not used makefile at all, and have not constructed the share
subdirectories. Macsyma originally had (and still has) a lisp-language
makefile kind of thing to build a system. I have long ago given up on
the notion of keeping that up to date, and now building Maxima depends
on a raft of other tools, some of which are handy and standard in ways
that ANSI CL may not be, some of which are superfluous and represent
some habit inherited from some programmer's previous projects.
Maxima code should be conditionalized for error handling since (I think)
GCL doesn't conform to ANSI. so some of the conditionalizations like
#+CMU might need to be changed to #+(or CMU Franz) or some such.
You may, in fact, have gone further than I have in pushing Maxima
through the free Allegro. Note: I was not able to compile all the
converted-from-fortran stuff in the free Allegro. At least a few years
ago. But it DOES compile in a paid-up copy, and can be loaded into a
free Allegro. I don't know about now.
If you have strong reasons to use Maxima in a free Allegro, maybe we
should talk. As it is, there is not exactly a groundswell for setting
this up, and Franz Inc doesn't seem to care one way or the other. [It
represents no income, so that is fair business assessment!]
RJF