Re: proposal to bring ifactor into src/, was: Factoring large integers
Subject: Re: proposal to bring ifactor into src/, was: Factoring large integers
From: Alasdair McAndrew
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 11:28:21 +1100
What I'd certainly like to see in Maxima is a number theory package:
factoring, Euler's phi function, Moebius function, prime testing, primitive
roots, chinese remainder theorem, modular equations, modular square roots,
quadratic residue testing, Jacobi and Legendre symbols, ...
-Alasdair
On 2/4/06, Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>
> In commercial macsyma,
> factor_number returns a list of factors of an integer.
> 1234 is an integer, not a polynomial.
> so factor(1234)-> 2*617.
> factor(1234*x) -> 1234 * x
>
> My expectation is that any "serious" use of factors
> would benefit from getting a list of <factor,multiplicity>
> rather than the hackish unsimplified form that has to
> be painstakingly decomposed to find the actual factors.
>
> I think the current factor program mostly makes sense for one
> application, namely to answer the question "Does this
> expression simplify to something interesting if I
> factor it?"
>
> RJF
>
>