proposal: subscripted local variables



   
>
> Oh. I guess we had better disallow stuff like diff(sin(x[1]), x[1]) then.
>
>   
>> > Unnecessary and likely to lead to bugs.
>> > What about f(x[1],x):= ...  ??
>>     
>
> What about it? When we try to prevent stupidity, we are also
> preventing cleverness.
>   

Nicely said!

I think the most important think in a CAS is consistency (much more than
efficiency). Once
the user knows the rules there should be no surprises (the problem
though with
maxima is that the rules are not written out in the manual; so it is 
hard to learn the rules).

Michel