oops. Whole list. I'll cc maxima now
Raymond Toy wrote:
>>>>>>"Richard" == Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> writes:
>>>>>>
>
> Richard> The semantics in Macsyma, as well as most of the other
> Richard> computer algebra systems, is an attempt to read
> Richard> the mind of the user.
>
> Richard> What does the symbol x mean? If it has never been
> Richard> assigned a value, it is the same as if you had done
> Richard> x:'x That is, x evaluates to x.
>
> Richard> If you have assigned x:4 then
> Richard> x evaluates to 4.
>
> Richard> If you have assigned x:y and y:z should
> Richard> x evaluate to z? In macsyma, x evaluates to y.
> Richard> In maple and mathematica, x evaluates to z.
>
> Interesting. I didn't know that. Difficult to say who's doing the
> right thing.
>
> Ray
>
> P.S. Did you intend to send this to just me or the whole list?
>
>