There are a number of web apps that do this sort of thing -- live math
on the web. It sounds to me like you're re-inventing a wheel here. Of
course, most of said web apps are not in Ruby, because Ruby and Rails
weren't popular when they were designed.

On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Richard Schneeman
<thedickster / gmail.com> wrote:
> By "using" maxima, I mean accessing maxima via a pipe in Ruby. I am
> developing a web based mathematical application that can integrate
> symbolically among other things. I don't have to use maxima or even ruby
> for that matter but I would like to if possible. I understand the
> concept of "system" access but during the execution I've hit two snags
>
> First, If i run this code multiple times:
>
> max = IO.popen("maxima", "w+")
> max.puts "1+1;"
> 8.times {max.gets} #needed to rid of unneeded lines
> response = max.gets
> max.close
>
> I get a new instances (found via ps -A) of  "ttys000 0:00.00 (sbcl)"
> every time i run the code. And i can't kill this "sbcl" via "kill pid".
> And after enough runs, I have to restart my computer.
>
> Second, I am unable to just get the last line from maxima without
> running "8.times {max.gets}." If i try to execute "max.gets" after
> maxima has reached the last line, I get an error (and no return to
> ruby). While i can get around this problem, (via 8.times ) it isn't
> exactly best practices.
>
> So, any suggestions??
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
>



-- 
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky

I've never met a happy clam. In fact, most of them were pretty steamed.