[Maxima-discuss] For Windows users: Simple way of running the latest Maxima from Git with wxMaxima

[David S. <d.s...@go...>]

Hello all,

This is a quick guide for Windows users who want to run the latest version
of Maxima from the Git source repository together with wxMaxima. I needed
to do this because some critical bugs in the latest "stable" build were
making my life hard.

The steps don't involve any GNU make tools or C++ compilers and should be
straightforward to follow.

   1. Install the latest "stable" Maxima build for Windows from
   https://sourceforge.net/projects/maxima/files/Maxima-Windows/. We will
   use the wxMaxima version that comes with this build and just replace Maxima
   itself.
   2. If you don't have one, install a Git client for Windows from
   http://git-scm.com/download/win.
   3. Clone the Maxima Git repository into some directory. In this guide, I
   will assume that this is C:\Maxima-Git. The repository's URL is
   git://git.code.sf.net/p/maxima/code.
   4. If you don't have it already, install Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL)
   for Windows from http://www.sbcl.org/platform-table.html. Since I'm on a
   64-bit Windows, I chose the 64-bit version, and it worked fine.
   5. Now we will build Maxima using SBCL only. For that, precisely follow
   the instructions found in the INSTALL.lisp file in C:\Maxima-Git:
      1. Open a command prompt and CD to C:\Maxima-Git.
      2. Start SBCL by entering: sbcl
      3. Now we configure Maxima by entering (load "configure.lisp"), then
      (configure), and finally (quit)
      4. Navigate to the C:\Maxima-Git\src directory: CD src
      5. Start SBCL again: sbcl
      6. Now we compile Maxima by entering (load "maxima-build.lisp"), then
      (maxima-compile), and finally (quit)
      7. Start SBCL again: sbcl
      8. Now we load the compiled Maxima program by entering (load
      "maxima-build.lisp") again, then (maxima-load)
      9. Finally, we dump an image by entering (maxima-dump)
   6. After these steps, you should have a compiled version of the latest
   Maxima. Verify that everything worked by running the maxima.bat file
   that you should find in C:\Maxima-Git\src. The Maxima command prompt
   should show up.
   7. Now we will make wxMaxima use our self-compiled Maxima version:
      1. Open an Explorer window and go to the bin subdirectory of your
      latest "stable" Maxima version. For me, this is C:\Program Files
      (x86)\Maxima-sbcl-5.35.1.2\bin.
      2. Rename the maxima.bat file to maxima.bat.bak.
      3. Rename the sbcl.exe file to sbcl.exe.bak. You need to do this
      because the supplied version of SBCL seems to be outdated, and that would
      result in troubles. By renaming the file, the SBCL version you earlier
      installed on your machine will be used instead.
      4. Copy C:\Maxima-Git\src\maxima.bat to the current directory.
   8. Verify that everything worked by starting wxMaxima and entering
   build_info(); - pay attention to the timestamp field, which should
   reflect the date and time when you compiled Maxima earlier.
   9. That's it! From time to time, you should pull new commits from the
   repository and rebuild Maxima by following step 5 again. Copying the files
   again (step 7) should not be necessary.
   10. If you want to undo the changes, delete the maxima.bat file and
   rename maxima.bat.bak back to maxima.bat and sbcl.exe.bak back to
   sbcl.exe.

I hope this guide proves useful. If you have any comments or additions,
please don't hesitate. Maybe we can put the guide somewhere into the Git
repository or the website.

Best regards,
David