[Maxima] recent attempt

[Nicolas Neuss]

"Richard Fateman" <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> writes:

> There has been some suggestion (repeated recently) that by using the common
> lisp object system at least some of the confusing multiplicity of options in
> Maxima can be handled more systematically, and that new features could be
> added more easily.  I believe that this concept can be over-sold (it almost
> always is when writing computer algebra "systems" in C++), but that it has
> some validity.  A package for doing generic arithmetic that could be
> modified for use in Maxima is on my web site, in case anyone cares to look
> at it. It is in draft form at http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~fateman/generic 
> 
> Comments are welcome.

I think this code (or at least part of it) would be interesting as a
stand-alone library (working across several CL implementations).  Already
the GMP interface would have been useful for me last year.  A possible
strategy could be to start a project at common-lisp.net providing generic
arithmetic for Allegro.  I'm quite sure that this library would be ported
to other CLs quite fast.  An LLGPL license (or similar) would be important.

Nicolas