>>>>> "Seth" == Seth Goldberg writes:
Seth> How this arose.
Seth> I was noodling around and asked for
Seth> integrate(sin(x^2),x);
Seth> I got back some interesting form in terms of erf
Seth> (as an alternative to the usual textbook form).
Seth> This checked out OK on differentiation.
Seth> However, it wouldn't plot, and wouldn't evaluate for x=1.
Seth> Using rectform or ev(...,numer) doesn't seem to help.
Seth> The problem seems already present in erf(%i)
This is a deficiency in maxima. It doesn't know how to calculate erf
for complex args.
I've looked around for an algorithm to do this, but haven't found one
yet. There was a patch for octave that used Rybicki's method for
complex args, but it had some unexplained constants that I wanted to
understand, and my local university library didn't seem to have the
journal with Rybicki's article, so I didn't do anything about it.
File this as a bug, if you like.
Ray