Maxima 5.9.0 has been released. The release notes are attached below. Please
see <http://maxima.sourceforge.net> for more details, including source and
binary downloads.
--James Amundson
Maxima Project Leader
Release notes for Maxima 5.9.0:
This is the first of a series of development releases which will
culminate in Maxima 6.0, the first truly stable release of the new
Maxima project. This release has known bugs; see "Known issues..."
below. However, we believe it is stable enough for use by a wide
audience. We are relying on bug reports from users to help us make 6.0
the most bug-free version of Maxima ever.
Changes in this release include:
1) Maxima is now compatible with ANSI Common Lisp. CMUCL, Clisp
and GCL are fully supported.
2) Maxima has a new build system based on the GNU
Autotools. Installation should be easier and more flexible than
ever before.
3) The Maxima build now uses mk:defsystem from CLOCC at the Lisp
level. mk:defsystem provides a powerful and familiar environment
for Lisp developers.
4) Maxima has a new User Manual, which is provided as a complement
to the detailed reference manual from earlier versions of Maxima.
5) The command-line interface has been enhanced with several
options, including a batch mode.
6) The bundled Emacs/XEmacs modes have been improved.
7) The internal layout of source code and shared Maxima files has
been vastly improved.
8) Precision of some numerical special functions has been
dramatically enhanced.
9) New and improved binary packages for Windows and Linux are now
part of the official distribution.
10) Last, but not least, many bugs have been fixed.
Known issues in this release include:
1) One of the (many) tests in the Maxima test suite fails. When
the test suite is run via "make check" this known failure (Problem
4 in rtest15.mac) will be listed as an expected error in the
summary.
2) The test suite is available in xmaxima. Xmaxima should also
flag the known failure described above as expected, but it does
not. This behavior will be improved in a later version of
(X)Maxima.
3) When compiled with GCL, Maxima will fail to compile functions
when the current working directory is not writable. This will
typically cause the test suite to fail when run from xmaxima under
Unix-like systems because it sets the current working directory to
the installed tests directory. The end result will look like this:
------------------------------------------------------------------
/* ********************** Problem 43. *************** */
%Input is
DESOLVE([EQN1, EQN2], [f(x), G(x)])
x + 2 contains more than one independent variable.
-- an error. Quitting. To debug this try DEBUGMODE(TRUE);)
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) The maxima command-line executable is only fully functional
under Unix-like systems, which includes Win32+MSYS, but not plain
Win32. Under Win32, the executable maxima.bat is available but it
has limited functionality. (The Win32 distribution does contain
xmaxima, however, which is fully functional under Win32.) This
problem will be fixed in a later version of Maxima.
5) maxima.bat does not properly set the Maxima directory. This
will cause several problems including the inability to access
on-line help and plotting. As a workaround, set the environment
variable MAXIMA_PREFIX to the installed location of Maxima, which
is usually "C:/Program Files/Maxima-5.9.0". This problem will be
fixed in a later version of Maxima.
6) The share and demo files have many problems. These problems
will be addressed in a later release.
7) There are still many open bugs in the Maxima bug tracking
database. See
<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=104933&group_id=4933&func=browse>
for details.
James Amundson:
> 2) Maxima has a new build system based on the GNU
> Autotools. Installation should be easier and more flexible than
> ever before.
i'm sorry if this is being too critical, but what possessed the maxima
people to use autotools? i know it is not easy to put together a new build
system as well as working on maxima, but using that trash for lisp/maxima
is like using broken bottles to carve michelangelo's david...
oz
---
where is some sand when your head needs it? -- larry wall
ozan s yigit <··@blue.cs.yorku.ca> wrote:
> James Amundson:
>
> > 2) Maxima has a new build system based on the GNU
> > Autotools. Installation should be easier and more flexible than
> > ever before.
>
> i'm sorry if this is being too critical, but what possessed the
> maxima people to use autotools? i know it is not easy to put
> together a new build system as well as working on maxima, but using
> that trash for lisp/maxima is like using broken bottles to carve
> michelangelo's david...
I admit to being a bit dismayed by some of the directions the people
working on Maxima took. But the big advantage of free software is
that one could always start a branch.... :-)
To be honest, I'm more likely to fantasize about doing it than
actually do it at this point, but there is a certain satisfaction to
even that. "Those ····@$% FreeBSD developers can't tell the
difference between a feature and a bug. I'm going to start a new OS
called `FredBSD'...." :-) :-)
--
Fred Gilham ······@csl.sri.com
Time is nature's way of making sure everything doesn't happen at once.
Unfortunately, like most things in nature it doesn't always work.
Fred Gilham <······@snapdragon.csl.sri.com> writes:
> I admit to being a bit dismayed by some of the directions the people
> working on Maxima took. But the big advantage of free software is
> that one could always start a branch.... :-)
Could you give some details. Since I do some maxima stuff, I'd be interested!
Martin
Martin Rubey <········@yahoo.de> writes:
> Fred Gilham <······@snapdragon.csl.sri.com> writes:
>
> > I admit to being a bit dismayed by some of the directions the people
> > working on Maxima took. But the big advantage of free software is
> > that one could always start a branch.... :-)
>
> Could you give some details. Since I do some maxima stuff, I'd be interested!
First of all, the Maxima install doesn't work under FreeBSD with CMU
Lisp. Something is wrong with the two (!) startup scripts used to get
it running. I submitted a bug report about this a long time ago.
Running it without the startup scripts works, but doesn't set all the
environment variables that need to be set.
Xmaxima kills my X server.
These problems seem associated with the non-lisp stuff. More non-lisp
stuff seems to have been added over time.
I guess that's what I mean. More non-lisp infrastructure keeps
getting added to Maxima and it hasn't helped it to be more reliable
from where I sit.
--
Fred Gilham ······@csl.sri.com | I wish I could get the thing I make
a living at to become a human right. Then people would be forced to
pay for it and use it. The only drawback is that, like schoolteachers,
I probably would wind up actually doing something else.
On Wed, 05 Mar 2003 13:55:41 -0600, Fred Gilham wrote:
> First of all, the Maxima install doesn't work under FreeBSD with CMU Lisp.
> Something is wrong with the two (!) startup scripts used to get it running. I
> submitted a bug report about this a long time ago.
Maxima 5.9.0 is the first development release from the new Maxima project. We
plan on a series of bug-fix releases. I'm sorry your bug didn't get fixed for
this release; it should be fixed for 5.9.1. As a workaround in the meantime,
if you set the environment variable CMUCL to "cmucl" that should solve all your
problems with cmucl on FreeBSD.
> Xmaxima kills my X server.
That bug should be fixed in the 5.9.0 release version. If it is not, please let
us know immediately.
> These problems seem associated with the non-lisp stuff. More non-lisp stuff
> seems to have been added over time.
Not really. Xmaxima is old. If you don't like it, I would suggest simply not
using it. I don't use it, myself.
> I guess that's what I mean. More non-lisp infrastructure keeps getting added
> to Maxima and it hasn't helped it to be more reliable from where I sit.
The reports I have seen since the release are very much to the contrary --
we've had far fewer compile/install, etc. problems than ever before. If you
have more problems with maxima, please bring them to our attention on the
maxima mailing list.
--Jim
ozan s yigit <··@blue.cs.yorku.ca> writes:
> i'm sorry if this is being too critical, but what possessed the maxima
> people to use autotools? i know it is not easy to put together a new build
> system as well as working on maxima, but using that trash for lisp/maxima
> is like using broken bottles to carve michelangelo's david...
Maxima is not really that infected by the autotools, and it uses
defsystem inside.
So if you want to hack it, go to the src/ directory, fire up your
favourite lisp, load defsystem and a couple of files,
(mk:oos "maxima" :compile)
And if you want to install it as a ready-to-go system, why do care
what the build system is?
Now, getting rid of the sloop macro, there is something to moan about:-)
Ole
On Wed, 05 Mar 2003 09:12:50 -0600, Ole Rohne wrote:
> Now, getting rid of the sloop macro, there is something to moan about:-)
I would *love* to have someone volunteer to work on removing sloop from maxima
;-)
--Jim
In article <······················@wideopenwest.com>,
James Amundson <········@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
>On Wed, 05 Mar 2003 09:12:50 -0600, Ole Rohne wrote:
>
>
>> Now, getting rid of the sloop macro, there is something to moan about:-)
>
>I would *love* to have someone volunteer to work on removing sloop from maxima
>;-)
MACROEXPAND? ;-)
On Tue, 04 Mar 2003 20:36:41 -0600, ozan s yigit wrote:
> James Amundson:
>
>> 2) Maxima has a new build system based on the GNU Autotools. Installation
>> should be easier and more flexible than ever before.
>
> i'm sorry if this is being too critical, but what possessed the maxima people
> to use autotools?
Actually, we have made it easier to avoid all make-related things in Maxima. If
you are somehow bothered by "./configure && make" you can simply cd to the src
directory, start lisp and invoke defsystem. That is all the autotools do during
the build process, anyway.
We have had very few reports of problems with the new build system since the
release. Building Maxima used to be a chore, so I am pleased with the results.
--Jim