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

[Richard F. <fa...@be...>]

On 8/31/2016 8:54 PM, Leo Butler wrote:
> I agree with what you have written. But curiously no frontend to Maxima
> takes this approach, as far as I am aware.
The pseudo-tty interface IS a front end, and it essentially takes this 
approach.  On Lisp machines, Macsyma
including  the whole front end (as well as the operating system!) and 
plotting were all written in Lisp, and
(while I cannot say I've looked at the implementation of these pieces)  
I would assume that 2-d variable-size
font etc display was all keyed to lisp internal form -- probably 
something like the version that comes out of
the nformat program.   ... this changes  ((mtimes) -1 x)    to ((mminus) 
x)     etc.

Why don't other programs use this?  I suspect that for at least some 
programs, it was a matter
of matching some API other than Lisp, e.g. MathML,  a choice that looks 
more "standard"  and
only requires a few thousand extra lines of code.

   It is certainly possible now for many
Lisp implementations to do graphics and typesetting and web access etc 
etc entirely within
the Lisp ecosystem.  But probably  the front-end authors wanted to be 
more implementation-independent.