differential operator in maxima



> As Stavros pointed out, Maxima doesn't have lexical closures, 
> but in many cases we can work around this deficiency by means 
> of BUILDQ.

Though Buildq is appropriate for writing macros, I think it is a rather
ugly quasi-emulation of lexical scope, especially because of the need
for that Gensym workaround.  Until Maxima has true lexical scope, I
think it's best to avoid such things and use Maxima in ways which are
"natural" for it.

I am also not sure why you are defining A as a prefix operator.  Why not
just use normal functional notation, e.g. A(exp)(x) or (perhaps more
clearly) (A(exp))(x)?  This does *not* cause an error as TWS says.

      -s