Confused about describe (Was: Re: [Maxima] Re: sin, cos into exponentials)

hi,

quote the "strings" you're searching for. For instance, try,

(C1) describe("expon");

 0: EXPON :(maxima.info)Definitions for Simplification.
 1: EXPONENTIALIZE :Definitions for Simplification.
 2: RATSIMPEXPONS :Definitions for Polynomials.
Enter n, all, none, or multiple choices eg 1 3 : 1;

Info from file /usr/lib/maxima-5.6/info/maxima.info:
 - Variable: EXPONENTIALIZE
     default: [FALSE] if TRUE will cause all circular and hyperbolic
     functions to be converted to exponential form.  (Setting
     DEMOIVRE:TRUE; will reverse the effect.) EXPONENTIALIZE(exp) will
     cause the conversion to exponential form of an expression without
     setting the switch or having to re-evaluate the expression with EV.

(D1)			     FALSE
			     

Alternatively,
- describe("exponentialize")  would narrow your search,
- example("exponentialize")  would show you some examples if any
  available (there's none in this case), and
- ? expon;  would do the same as  describe("expon");  

Miquel


On Fri, Jul 02, 2004 at 11:36:28AM +0200, Albert Reiner wrote:
> So now that I know about exponentialize, I wanted to read its
> documentation.  This resulted in major confusion about what describe
> actually does:
> 
> ,----
> | (C1) describe(exponentialize);
> | 
> | 
> | 
> | Info from file /usr/share/info/maxima.info:
> |  - Variable: FALSE
> |      - the Boolean constant, false. (NIL in LISP)
> | 
> | (D1) 				     FALSE
> `----
> 
> This does not seem to describe the function, does it?
> But the function is there:
> 
> ,----
> | (C2) exponentialize(sin(x));
> | 
> | 				   %I x	    - %I x
> | 			     %I (%E     - %E	  )
> | (D2) 			   - ----------------------
> | 				       2
> `----
> 
> Looking for substrings:
> 
> ,----
> | (C5) describe(expon);
> | 
> | 
> |  0: DOT0NSCSIMP :(maxima.info)Definitions for Matrices and Linear Algebra.
> |  1: DOT0SIMP :Definitions for Matrices and Linear Algebra.
> | Enter n, all, none, or multiple choices eg 1 3 : all
> | 
> | Info from file /usr/share/info/maxima.info:
> |  - Variable: DOT0NSCSIMP
> |      default: [TRUE] Causes a non-commutative product of zero and a
> |      nonscalar term to be simplified to a commutative product.
> | 
> | 
> |  - Variable: DOT0SIMP
> |      default: [TRUE] Causes a non-commutative product of zero and a
> |      scalar term to be simplified to a commutative product.
> | 
> | (D5) 				     FALSE
> `----
> 
> Neither of the DOT0*SIMP seems to mention anything containing "expon",
> whereas looking for "exp" finds "exponentialize" but none of the
> DOT0*SIMP variables.
> 
> ,----
> | (C6) describe(exp);
> | 
> |  0: (maxima.info)Expressions.
> |  1: Introduction to Expressions.
> |  2: Definitions for Expressions.
> [...]
> | Enter n, all, none, or multiple choices eg 1 3 : n
> | 
> | (D6) 				     FALSE
> `----
> 

-- 
Miquel E Cabanas ------------------------------------------------------
SeRMN, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Miquel.Cabanas@uab.es)
MRUI Software Manager (mrui-mgr@mrui.uab.es)
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