Jochen,
I don't think there's any problem discussing wxMaxima on this mailing list.
The problem comes when a user (typically a new user) asks about some issue
which happens to be specific to wxMaxima without specifying that he's using
wxMaxima.
This is not the users' fault. In fact, the way things are set up, they
have every reason to believe that Maxima = wxMaxima:
- The command-line functions bug_report/build_info do not mention that
Maxima is running under wxMaxima (let alone report the version -- I hope
that info is being passed in somehow?).
- Even the GUI command Help/Bug Report doesn't (it just invokes the
command-line function).
- In fact, *none* of the GUI Help commands (except Show Tips) even *
mention* wxMaxima -- you have to look in the menu wxMaxima/About...,
which has a link to a wxMaxima page <http://andrejv.github.com/wxmaxima/>;,
which in turn has a link to a help page with lots of
tutorials<http://andrejv.github.com/wxmaxima/help.html>;
.
- But even after all that, there is no reference manual for wxMaxima
that I can find!
- When you download an installation package for Maxima for some
platforms (in particular MacOS
X<http://sourceforge.net/projects/maxima/files/Maxima-MacOS/>;),
it *only* installs wxMaxima (as far as I can tell), not command-line
Maxima or XMaxima.
No wonder people confuse Maxima and wxMaxima.
There does seem to be a moderately active user forum for wxMaxima at
sourceforge <http://sourceforge.net/projects/wxmaxima/forums/forum/435775>;,
but the wxMaxima Help does not point to it. In any case, many of the
questions there are actually generic Maxima questions, so it might make
more sense to auto-forward postings there to this list (though auto-posting
responses back is probably going to be a nightmare).
Andrej, if I'm not mistaken, you're the maintainer of wxMaxima. Thanks for
all your good work on it! I wonder -- would it be possible to improve the
bug_report/build_info functionality, and provide some pointer from Help to
wxMaxima-specific documentation?
Also, is there a reference manual somewhere? I am having trouble using
wxMaxima effectively because of the lack of documentation. For example,
what is the command for "reenter previous command" (like control-P in
XMaxima?)? And how do I refer to the previous result in the worksheet?
"%" refers to the (dynamic) last result calculated, not the (lexical)
previous one in the worksheet. How do I copy a series of lines to the
paste buffer including the %i/%o numbers? etc. etc.
Thanks!
-s
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 11:46, Jochen Ziegenbalg <ziegenbalg at ph-karlsruhe.de
> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> maybe, in response to the following two remarks I will be told that
> "This is not a problem of Maxima but of wxMaxima".
> If so, please let me know if a separate mailing list exist for wxMaxima.
> However, since new users of Maxima tend not to draw a line between
> Maxima and wxMaxima (they rather tend to see it as one system - which,
> I think, is good for Maxima) I would appreciate if wxMaxima-questions
> could be dealt with in this mailing list as well.
>
> Remark 1: When I start Maxima / wxMaxima and evaluate the term 100!
> I get the output
> 933262154439441526816992388562[98
> digits]916864000000000000000000000000.
> It took me quite a while to find out about the set_display(ascii)
> command delivering the full output.
> Many new users of Maxima, as I could, for instance, observe with my
> students, are irritated by the above default display behaviour. They
> expect the full output.
> Wouldn't it be possible to make "full output" the standard default
> display behaviour after installation of Maxima/wxMaxima?
> If so, I would opt for this as a default.
>
> Remark 2: After invoking the Maxima/wxMaxima help-window it does not
> disappear when I click on the Maxima/wxMaxima worksheet again. I have
> to close the help-window explicitely or at least I have to drag it
> aside in order to be able to see all of my Maxima/wxMaxima worksheet.
> Wouldn't it be possible to change the behaviour of the help-window to
> the effect that it goes one step to the background when I click on the
> worksheet?
>
> Thank you,
> best regards,
> Jochen
> _______________________________________________
> Maxima mailing list
> Maxima at math.utexas.edu
> http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima
>