Re: [Maxima-discuss] How can I call Maxima functions from a language different from Common Lisp? (FFI or server/client, doesn't matter)

[Richard <fa...@gm...>]

On 8/30/16 11:07 AM, Wolfgang Dautermann wrote:
> It's the other way round: Maxima is the*client*, not the server.
That's the way people think because they wrote the other program and 
they want
it to be in charge.  That doesn't mean it should be that way.
Here's why:

Maxima sets up a large infrastructure for memory management, symbolic 
computation, and perhaps other libraries for numerical, statistical, etc 
work.

Say you have your own program P that (for example) tests students on 
algebra problems.
And say your program is 1/100 the size of Maxima.

Here's a way to run it.   Have a Maxima system that loads your program 
as a foreign function library.  One binary.  When you start up this 
system, it executes a Maxima command that
calls P.   P can call back into Maxima  by calling any lisp program, or 
can access any data in Maxima.  It has full access to the system, 
including evaluating command lines, but also everything else.

It is perhaps a question as to how to best handle some issues -- like a 
keyboard interrupt, or a system error condition -- in such a system.
But my experience with programs connected by sockets suggests this is 
often a problem
in that setting as well.
Stopping a runaway Maxima loop?

Anyway, the point used to be that program P was much smaller and less 
sophisticated
than Maxima..   Now I suppose that P can be larger and hairier than 
Maxima, given
the huge bloat and complexity of programs that are produced by common
interactive development environments.

RJF