["Juan Pablo Romero Bernal" , Tue, 21 Jun 2005 03:48:45 +0800]:
> (%i6) sin(%pi);
> (%o6) 0
> (%i7) sin(%pi),numer;
> (%o7) 1.224606353822377E-16
In the first case you are asking for an exact symbolic result. In the
second case you are asking for a floating point evaluation, and that
is generally not exact.
> (%i1) Sin(%pi);
> (%o1) Sin(%pi)
Maxima was recently switched to case sensitivity, so capitalization
matters.
HTH,
Albert.