user interfaces in general



>>>>> "Stavros" == Stavros Macrakis <macrakis at gmail.com> writes:

    >> ratsimp(specint(t^(-1/2)*%e^(-2*a^(1/2)*t^(1/2))*%e^(-p*t),t));
    Stavros> Actually, general-purpose integrate gets this one, too...  This points
    Stavros> out a problem for new users of Maxima: having to know that if general
    Stavros> integration doesn't work, they might want to try specint; same thing
    Stavros> for limit/tlimit, simpsum/nusum, etc.

Yeah, that's a problem.  I don't have an answer for that.  But we
could at least document them, so that in the documentation for limit,
we should mention tlimit, etc.

    Stavros> It turns out, by the way, that the return values of specint and
    Stavros> integrate are different, but numerical evaluation shows that they
    Stavros> differ by a constant (phew!).

Really?  ratsimp(specint(foo,t)) and factor(integrate(foo,t,0,inf))
both give exactly the same answer for me.  I'm using the latest CVS
version, but I think the 5.9.3 should be the same.

Ray