While I'm think about it, here is another reason max (and min)
need some work:
Error: MACSYMA-TOP-LEVEL [or a callee] requires less than one thousand
arguments.
Fast links are on: do (si::use-fast-links nil) for debugging
Error signalled by MACSYMA-TOP-LEVEL.
Broken at MACSYMA-TOP-LEVEL. Type :H for Help.
MAXIMA>>:q
Try again with 100 members
(C3) w : makelist(concat(x,i),i,1,100)$
(C4) apply(max,w);
Error: MACSYMA-TOP-LEVEL [or a callee] requires less than one hundred
arguments.
Fast links are on: do (si::use-fast-links nil) for debugging
Error signalled by MACSYMA-TOP-LEVEL.
Broken at MACSYMA-TOP-LEVEL. Type :H for Help.
MAXIMA>>:q
The message that "...requires less than one thousand arguments" isn't
very useful! With 50 members, max works okay
(C5) w : makelist(concat(x,i),i,1,50)$
(C6) apply(max,w);
(D6) MAX(x9, x8, x7, x6, x50, x5, x49, x48, x47, x46, x45, x44, x43, x42,
x41,
x40, x4, x39, x38, x37, x36, x35, x34, x33, x32, x31, x30, x3, x29, x28,
x27,
x26, x25, x24, x23, x22, x21, x20, x2, x19, x18, x17, x16, x15, x14, x13,
x12,
x11, x10, x1)
(C7) build_info();
Maxima version: 5.9.0
Maxima build date: 19:10 2/9/2003
host type: i686-pc-mingw32
lisp-implementation-type: Kyoto Common Lisp
lisp-implementation-version: GCL-2-5.0
(D7)
Barton