imaxima and imath homepage

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About this site

This site is the home of imaxima and imath, Emacs extension programs for Maxima Computer Algebra System.

You can find the latest release package, how to install, examples of both imaxima and imath here.

Easy Install on Mac OS X

Here I will describe how to install imaxima.el on Mac OS X. The explanation applies to both Snow Leopard and Lion. However, if Lion users encounter an error related to "make-directory" function, please don't forget to put: (setq temporary-file-directory "/tmp") in your .emacs or .emacs.d/init.el file.

This procedure does not require the install of Fink or MacPorts. Instead we install tex, ghostscript, Maxima, and Emacs which are distributed in package forms.

Contents

  1. 1 Emacs
  2. 2 BasicTex.dmg

  3. 3 Ghostscript
  4. 4 Maxima
  5. 5 Adding lines in your .emacs file

Emacs


Emacs for Mac OS X package installer is distributed from http://emacsformacosx.com/ . Just go there and download the latest version. Double-clicking the download file mounts it and you will find Emacs application. Drag'n drop it into /Applications should be fine.

BasicTex.dmg


BasicTeX is a very minimal installation package of TeX / LaTeX for Mac OS X, created and distributed by Prof. Kock of University of Oregon. You can download the package from his web site. The installation is pretty simple, since very standard installer is provided when you mount the downloaded disk image. The document tells where it is installed.
 You may need to restart your Mac.

Ghostscript

This is a Intel / Power PC binary distribution package of the Ghostscript, also created by Prof. Kock of University of Oregon. Due to his request, this package is distributed from this site. You can download it here.

The installation is pretty simple. Double clicking the downloaded Ghostscript-9.02.pkg.zip, Ghostscript-9.02.pkg is created. You can run this installer and the rest of the procedure is quite standard in terms of Mac OS X installation process. 

Gs commands are installed in /usr/local/bin.


Maxima


You can download the latest Maxima installer for Mac OS X from Sourceforge download site . You mount the downloaded image file and drag and drop the Maxima and Gnuplot applications into /Applications folder.

Adding lines in your .emacs file


Please start Emacs.

You should put the following lines in your .emacs file:
         ;; for Lion users
        (setq temporary-file-directory "/tmp")
;; for tex
(push "/usr/texbin" exec-path)
;; for ghostscript
(push "/usr/local/bin" exec-path)
;; for gnuplot
(push "/Applications/Gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/bin" exec-path)
;; for Maxima
(push "/Applications/Maxima.app/Contents/Resources/maxima/bin" exec-path)
(push "/Applications/Maxima.app/Contents/Resources/" exec-path)
(setenv "PATH"
    (concat "/Applications/Gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/bin:/Applications/Maxima.app/Contents/Resources/maxima/bin:"
        (getenv "PATH") ))
(setq imaxima-maxima-program "maxima.sh")
;; for imaxima
(push "/Applications/Maxima.app/Contents/Resources/maxima/share/maxima/5.25.1/emacs/" load-path)


(autoload 'imaxima "imaxima" "Maxima frontend" t)
(autoload 'imath-mode "imath" "Interactive Math mode" t)

You can now restart Emacs so that the above lines take the effects.


Try M-x imaxima to start imaxima. Enjoy!