generate dummy variables



> > Is there a standard way for generating dummy variables that must be
> > unique?  I am thinking of something akin to Common Lisp's GENSYM or
> > Mathematica's Unique[].

Barton Willis <willisb@unk.edu> writes:

> Lisp functions can be called from Maxima by adding '?' as
> a prefix to the function name. Thus to call the Lisp
> function gensym from Maxima, use ?gensym.

But the downside of this seems to be that I can and up with two
distinct symbols that appear the same on screen, which might be quite
confusing:

,----
| (C55) ?gensym();
| 
| (D55) 				     G1640
| (C56) G1641: 3;
| 
| (D56) 				       3
| (C57) ?gensym();
| 
| (D57) 				     G1641
| (C58) G1641;
| 
| (D58) 				       3
`----

It seems that most packages just use CONCAT with some counter to
generate a new symbol.

Thanks,

Albert.