[armedbear-devel] Performance of ABCL?

[Robert Dodier]

--- On Fri, 9/25/09, Alessio Stalla <alessiostalla at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Maxima uses too many dynamic variables in general
> > probably - in that sense it's a badly written software.
> 
> afaik that's because it was originally written in a
> dynamically scoped Lisp.

I'll take this opportunity to mention that, as a long-term
maintenance project, I'd like to regularize Maxima's use of
special variables. First part is to use defvar instead of
declare (special ...) + setq, second part is to make sure all
special variables have names like *foo*. I've made some
progress on the first part. Second part requires thought to
distinguish uses of special variables from lexical variables
with the same name; I haven't gotten started on that.
I've probably omitted some important details too.

If anyone would like to help with this project, I'd be glad
to have your help.

best

Robert Dodier