Re: how to pass the name of a variable as argument?

> Yeah --- Python has a lot going for it, but it lacks the code=data
> principle, which Maxima inherits from Lisp, and which is the most
> important feature of Lisp for Maxima. 

What exactly do you mean by code=data?  (Python does have
"lambda" and "eval".)  What would be the advantage of using
CLPython?

> I suspect it would be
> necessary to modify Python to make it a suitable user language
> for Maxima, but I am hoping that we can get most of the way there
> by using a Python implementation in Lisp, the sole example of
> which seems to be CLPython. A port of CLPython to SBCL is in
> progress; I'll give it a try when it's done.