[HN Gopher] ECL Runs Maxima in a Browser
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       ECL Runs Maxima in a Browser
        
       Author : seansh
       Score  : 113 points
       Date   : 2025-11-03 06:21 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (mailman3.common-lisp.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (mailman3.common-lisp.net)
        
       | shawn_w wrote:
       | There used to be an ECL+Maxima app for Android, but it fell in
       | one of the purges of older programs from the Play store a while
       | back. I was always surprised it didn't use ABCL.
        
         | pjmlp wrote:
         | Some folks have such a Java allergy that they rather endure the
         | pains of NDK tooling, than accept a bit of Java on their
         | efforts, I imagine.
        
           | spwa4 wrote:
           | Where the sad truth is that just the debugging features of
           | the JDK alone make it worth using it even for just using C
           | libraries. You can separate the C libraries, restart them
           | without losing memory, communicate with them at least as
           | efficient as through RPC ...
           | 
           | Memory management means that you can just inspect any piece
           | of memory, even through code.
           | 
           | AND it's statically typed, unlike the one other environment
           | that even tries to do this.
        
           | northlondoner wrote:
           | I think it is more of JVM thing than Java only. Maybe because
           | of enterprise scale, rather than being resource aware
           | minimalist solution.
        
         | stassats wrote:
         | ABCL is really slow.
        
         | pdw wrote:
         | I wouldn't assume ABCL runs on Android. It's not listed as a
         | supported runtime on their website.
        
       | cies wrote:
       | This looks like an open source alternative to
       | Mathematica/MathLab/Maple running in the browser.
       | 
       | Please correct me if I'm off...
       | 
       | As there's no project description that I quickly found, I came to
       | this conclusion myself.
        
         | radiator wrote:
         | Wikipedia writes: _Maxima is based on a 1982 version of
         | Macsyma_
         | 
         | Perhaps because it has such a long history and because this was
         | published in a Lisp website, Maxima was considered known.
        
         | phkahler wrote:
         | >> This looks like an open source alternative to
         | Mathematica/MathLab/Maple running in the browser.
         | 
         | Yes. If you're on Linux try out wxMaxima as a local app. I'm
         | not sure how to get the Windows version of wxMaxima since you
         | end up in some weird sourceforge hell trying to get an
         | installer.
        
       | mark_l_watson wrote:
       | Very cool! Love to see old but still useful GPL licensed FSF
       | projects. I had Maxima on my old Lisp Machine, and 24 years ago
       | when I first interviewed at Google, one of the developers of
       | Maxima was also interviewing and we had a while to talk in the
       | sign in area before going off for our interviews. We were amused
       | that two old Common Lispers were at the same place at the same
       | time.
       | 
       | When you try the linked browser web app, start with the
       | documentation link, fairly easy to use.
        
       | joaonmatos wrote:
       | Prof. Jaime Villate taught us physics at U. Porto and made heavy
       | use of Maxima. Good times :D
        
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       (page generated 2025-11-03 23:01 UTC)