Status Update 2

I thought I had better post an update. There is a bunch of applications I am compiling / researching / testing at the moment:

• I have completed compiling the latest XEphem, and will post that shortly.
• I have compiled the latest texmacs, but the first cut ran way too slow! It is re-compiling now with some tweaks. Hopefully I can get the performance to an acceptable level - otherwise this will be posted as a curiosity rather than something useful!
  
• Research is ongoing with regards to updating maxima. I have re-compiled the latest clisp, but it fails the test suite at test 53. I need to find out whether this is something I can fix, or if I need to start tracking back through previous versions to find the latest I can compile - which will then determine which version of maxima I can compile.
  
• r, and octave were temporarily stalled for the lack of a FORTRAN compiler. I still have a plan for this, and am waiting on a very rainy day to try and put it in motion. I don't know if it is practical to use f2c (which I have) for these, but if necessary I will investigate this as an alternative to my main plan of attack.
  
• I have an on-going battle with scigraphica. I am struggling to get the python numarray package compiled. Again, I have now figured out a possible plan of attack, and remain cautiously optimistic that I can get it to work - but this will take time since it requires changing the source code. The problem surrounds the handling of floating point exceptions.
  
• grace has been put to one side for now. I ran into huge problems compiling the cephes package. Although I am not optimistic about this, I would like to feel it is possible. The application itself was an easy compile - as ever it is the 'other-bits' that cause the problems!
  
• I have not looked at scilab yet, but am aware that it is a big - big job, and if I can get it compiled, it will not be the absolute latest.
• genius is well and truly on my radar...
  

That's about it for now....check back soon for some of these updated applications.