FW: [Maxima] bug report, or am I doing something wrong?

>>>>> "Luke" == Luke Sharkey <99LSharkey at ormskirk.lancs.sch.uk> writes:

    Luke> Also: (this caused me a *lot* of headache before I realised
    Luke> what was going on).  Its about the log() function.  I
    Luke> checked the documentation, and finally realised that log()
    Luke> actually means the *natural logarithm*.

I think that's fairly typical in mathematics.  We could certainly
change the docs to explicitly say it's the natural log, though.

    Luke> Firstly, how does one do log to the base 10 with maxima?
  
log10(x) := log(x)/log(10);

    Luke> Secondly, on every calculator, maths program (Microsoft Excel, etc) and
    Luke> textbook I have ever used, "log" has ALWAYS meant "log to the base 10",
    Luke> and "ln()" log to the base e", unless it is specified in some way, e.g.

Can't help it if they're wrong. :-)

I'm pretty sure Mathematica and Maple use log to mean base e.  Many
math reference books use log.  Tables of formulas and integrals use
log.

    Luke> At the very least, every time the log function is used, some text should
    Luke> appear below indicating that the such and such a calculation involving a
    Luke> log has been "calculated with log to the base xyz" underneath the
    Luke> output.

I doubt that will happen.

    Luke> Thirdly, programs like Excel use "LOG" in uppercase.  Maxima should be
    Luke> able to recognise when "LOG" is typed, or copied and pasted in from
    Luke> Excel, that it should be recognised as "log": this should be automatic.

I doubt that will happen either, just like A and a are (now) two
different variables.

Ray