Re: [Maxima-bugs] [ maxima-Bugs-1407378 ] polarform returns a rectangular expression for float argumen

On 1/19/06, Stavros Macrakis <macrakis at gmail.com> wrote:

> The argument for things like 1*%e^(0*%i) and for that matter 0*%e^(0*%i) is
> that the user can use 'part' on them and thus doesn't have to know about
> cabs and carg.

understood. i want to actively discourage part hacking.

users should fall back on part hacking only when maxima doesn't supply
a function corresponding to the algebraic concept they want,
but in this case, maxima does supply cabs and carg.
(although i wonder why cabs is not the same things as abs.
not immediately relevant here.)

part hacking is fragile, as it depends on expressions being
simplified in a certain way. in the present context, we would have
to forestall some obvious simplifications such as 0*exp(foo) => 0
and exp(0) => 1 in order to make part hacking work for the
polarform return value.

best,
robert dodier