Hello Park,
> I did not search the archive (not really searchable is it?)--so if this
> is a common question please sling mud at will.
Well, there is a Google search box at http://maxima.sf.net/maximalist.html .
I think you can also search through Gmane (link on the above page).
About nonlinear equations, there is an implementation of Newtons' method.
? mnewton
shows some info and
load (mnewton);
loads it.
If you find yourself attempting to fit a curve, you might find the
LBFGS numerical minimizer useful. It was introduced post-5.9.3,
so (until 5.9.4 is released) you'll have to get it from cvs,
http://cvs.sf.net/viewcvs.py/maxima/maxima/share/lbfgs/ .
hth,
Robert Dodier