[Ecls-list] Build system support for ECL now in Maxima cvs

[James Amundson]

Everyone,

I just committed support for ECL in the Maxima build system to the 
Maxima CVS repository. The most recent release of ECL, *ECL 0.9l* 
<http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=853748>, is required. 
Please see the P.S. for platform-specific notes.

Basically, this means that ECL Maxima can now be compiled with
    ./configure --enable-ecl
    make
    make install

There are several minor issues and one *major* issue left with ecl 
support. The major issue is that ECL complains about two functions being 
redefined in locked packages, as can be seen in the following session:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|acac1>./maxima-local
Attempt to redefine function COMMON-LISP:TYPEP in locked package.
;;; SHADOWING COERCEBroken at SI:TOP-LEVEL.Available restarts:
1. (CONTINUE) Ignore lock and proceed
Top level.
MAXIMA> (cl:continue)
Attempt to redefine function COMMON-LISP:COERCE in locked package.
Broken at SI:TOP-LEVEL.Available restarts:
1. (CONTINUE) Ignore lock and proceed
Top level.
MAXIMA> (cl:continue)
Maxima 5.16.0cvs http://maxima.sourceforge.net
Using Lisp ECL 0.9l (CVS 2008-06-19 17:09)
Distributed under the GNU Public License. See the file COPYING.
Dedicated to the memory of William Schelter.
The function bug_report() provides bug reporting information.
(%i1) 1+1;
(%o1)                                  2
(%i2) integrate(sin(x),x);
(%o2)                              - cos(x)
(%i3) quit();
|acac1>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Making things worse, ECL suggests "(continue)", but one has to type 
"(cl:continue)" because the maxima package is current.

I am leaving it to someone else to fix the locked package problem.

--Jim

P.S. I have tried compiling ecl maxima on three platforms: (1) 64-bit 
Fedora 8, (2) 32-bit Fedora 9, (3) 64-bit Redhat Enterprise 5. (2) and 
(3) work fine. (1) fails with an "out of memory" error. As luck would 
have it, (1) is my main development platform. If I had realized that the 
out-of-memory error was a platform-specific problem, I would have 
finished the port a long time ago. It was only when I tried a slightly 
different machine than my usual one that I was able to make progress.