On 12/22/06, miguel lopez <miguel39123 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> To use tlimit or taylor properly you must put taylor inside!
No, both uses are "proper", but different. Compare:
taylor(x^3,x,0,2) => 0+... (expand to x^2 term)
taylor(x,x,0,2)^3 => x^3 + ... (calculate with x^2 order series)
Unfortunately, Maxima is not consistent about this. For example,
exp(taylor(x,x,0,2))
should really give
1+x+x^2/2+...
but in fact it gives exp(x), ignoring the "..." terms in the original
expression.
> Limit and tlimit doesn't need batteries,
Could you please explain the expression "needs batteries"? (This is
not an English-language idiom in this context.) It would seem to mean
that the machinery is there, but is not turned on?
> they need less tricky code or more documentation on these tricks.
Maxima is a big and messy and inconsistent system, and a lot could be
better designed, implemented, and documented.... We'd be happy to
have your help on this.
-s