Strange thing in Maxima: reduction of fraction



On THU, 7 DEC 2006, Jihuan. T. wrote:

> Hello everybody!
>
>        I've run across such an odd thing:
>
> (%i1) (p - q) / abs(p - q)^2;
>
>                                          p - q
> (%o1)                              --------
>                                                   2
>                                         (q - p)
>
> (%i2) (q - p) / abs(q - p)^2;
>
>                                             1
> (%o2)                                -----
>                                           q - p
>
> Obviously, the output of (%o1) is correct, because I've not made any 
> assumptions about p & q in advance. However, why did Maxima produce the 
> output of (%o2) when I swapped the order of p & q as in the above?
>
> Thanks a lot!

Looks like a bug.

-- 
Leo