FAQS/follow-up on solving a set of symbolic equations

Dear Richard,

I am always extremely thankful to you for all of your comments
and help, which are so valuable to me. Therefore, I completely
agree with your comments below with just one exception:

For a casual user of Maxima the main sources of documentation
presently are

1. The DOE-Maxima Reference Manual of Michael Clarkson

http://starship.python.net/crew/mike/maxima/html/macref/

where GLOBALSOLVE appears as a flag of Solve in the same
section of the PDF file (Section 9.1 for the Solve command):

http://starship.python.net/crew/mike/maxima/html/macref/node63.html

> Solve Flags 
. . .  
> variable, default: FALSE: GLOBALSOLVE 
> if set to TRUE then variables which are SOLVEd for will be
> set to the solution of the set of simultaneous equations

and 2.  The old Maxima Manual of William F. Schelter (distributed 
with Maxima)

where GLOBALSOLVE refers to "variables which are SOLVEd 
. . . " text exactly as previously (and not LINSOLVEd as I would 
like to be written).

Finally, in Maxima itself, version 5.9.0, the documentation mentions
the same text:

(C3) describe(solve);
. . .
 3: GLOBALSOLVE :Definitions for Equations.
. . .
Enter n, all, none, or multiple choices eg 1 3 : 3;
Info from file C:/MAXIMA/MAXIMA/info/maxima.info:
 - Variable: GLOBALSOLVE
     default: [FALSE] if set to TRUE then variables which are SOLVEd
     for will be set to the solution of the set of simultaneous
     equations.
(D3)      FALSE

Therefore, one cannot understand what is exactly happening.
(At least, I have been somewhat confused, myself!)

Naturally, for everybody having access to the commercial
Macsyma User's Manual, the situation is clear, but this is not
the case for every user of Maxima especially for a potential user.

For these reasons I explicitly suggested before few days that
a new manual of Maxima should be prepared:

> The final point would be the preparation of a new Maxima
> Reference Manual taking into account the present commands'
> status of Maxima 5.9.0 (and in the share library too) and including
> instructions, comments and examples for all of the commands (after
> actual tests of them) in a uniform way, this is very important . . .

For the moment the best I can do is to prepare myself instructions
for using few special commands of Maxima (and examples too,
but these examples are based just on Maxima 5.9.0 and, therefore,
they are more or less reliable as far as Maxima itself is concerned).

Cliff is in favor of such an effort:

> That is a truly enormous task, but is one that must eventually be
> attempted.  It is not and cannot be a task of any one person. 
> Eventually, I hope it will be an automatic part of adding to Maxima
> that the documentation is updated.  I don't know if we are at the point
> of starting to create that system yet, but I fear the time draws near
> ;).  

and I believe everybody would applaud such an effort in case it
could be undertaken. My further suggestion has been that

> I agree, this enormous effort should be undertaken, but the 
> presentation should be made in a uniform way with the same
> information, the same abbreviations and notation and the 
> same style of examples for all of the commands, system
> and option variables, etc. (This is not the case now with
> both of the Maxima Reference Manuals.) Therefore, a 
> team work, but with just one responsible author to give 
> the instructions (I mean strict instructions) and decide 
> (as is the case with Jim in the Maxima releases). 

I am not sure (I really doubt) that your tasks could permit you
to undertake this additional heavy task (perhaps as described
above in a team work), but if this could be possible for you 
some time, we all would be extremely thankful to you. In fact,
from time to time I read messages in the Maxima Mailing List 
asking for information about the Maxima documentation.

I really hope that a new Maxima Reference Manual could 
be prepared some time in the future and your related help 
would be really valuable. (Naturally, I understand and
 respect your so heavy duties beyond the Maxima project.)

Many most sincere thanks again and best regards,

Nikos

> --- "Richard Fateman" <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> wrote:


> globalsolve works only for the results of linsolve, not
> solve, according to the documentation.
> 
> The version of macsyma  (called 'vaxima') we released
> in 1980 or so, using Franz Lisp, was consistently in
> lower case.  The commercial macsyma and subsequent
> Common Lisp versions made a mess of the situation.
> as for c41
> I guess that y1 looks like part of apply1...