[Maxima] GCL ?Maxima Lisp bug in defpackage??

[Raymond Toy (RT/EUS)]

Richard Fateman wrote:
> get to lisp via to_lisp()  in xmaxima..
> 
> MAXIMA> (defpackage :r (:use "ga"))
> 
> Maxima encountered a Lisp error:
> 
>  Error in LISP:USE-PACKAGE [or a callee]: "ga" is not of type (LISP:OR
>                                                                LISP:SYMBOL
>                                                                LISP:STRING
>  
> LISP:PACKAGE).
> 
> It seems to me that "ga"   IS of type STRING.

I can reproduce this with gcl (2.6.8).  I think the warning itself is 
bogus.  Here's what I see:

MAXIMA> (defpackage :r (:use "ga"))

Maxima encountered a Lisp error:

  Error in LISP:USE-PACKAGE [or a callee]: "ga" is not of type (LISP:OR
                                                                LISP:SYMBOL
                                                                LISP:STRING
 
LISP:PACKAGE).

MAXIMA> (defpackage :r (:use :cl))

#<"R" package>
MAXIMA> (defpackage ga)

#<"GA" package>
MAXIMA> (defpackage :r2 (:use "ga"))

#<"R2" package>

Based on these results, I'm guess the error message is really trying to 
tell you that the package "ga" doesn't exist.  Did you define the ga 
package?

Ray