Function returning the version number



I think that making a program dependent on the Maxima version
number generally indicates that something has gone wrong;
I would avoid it if possible.

That said, I have a patch laying around to rework build_info
so that it returns a Maxima structure (as defined by defstruct)
which makes it easy to extract the bits of the build info.

With this patch I get:

(%i2) x : build_info ();
(%o2)
Maxima version: 5.26.0_16_gb72c64c_dirty
Maxima build date: 2012-01-11 00:01:25
Host type: i686-pc-linux-gnu
Lisp implementation type: CMU Common Lisp
Lisp implementation version: CVS release-19a 19a-release-20040728 +
minimal debian patches
(%i3) x at version;
(%o3)                      5.26.0_16_gb72c64c_dirty
(%i4) x at timestamp;
(%o4)                         2012-01-11 00:01:25
(%i5) x at host;
(%o5)                          i686-pc-linux-gnu
(%i6) x at lisp_name;
(%o6)                           CMU Common Lisp
(%i7) x at lisp_version;
(%o7)    CVS release-19a 19a-release-20040728 + minimal debian patches


Note that the patch includes a display function so that the
return value of build_info is displayed just as build_info now
displays the build info.

I'll commit this unless someone thinks it's a bad idea.

best

Robert Dodier