Welcome to Maxima.
> ...a relatively simple function... takes an unexpected amount of time
Thanks for your trouble report. If you could send a complete procedure
for reproducing the problem, we should be able to help. I do know that
I have had problems with plot2d's scaling functionality, but your
problem could be completely different.
I'm afraid I don't know anything about speed comparisons with other
systems; can anyone else answer that?
-s