--- On Fri, 9/25/09, Alessio Stalla <alessiostalla@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