entering hypergeometric functions in maxima



Dlubek Michal wrote:
> Hello people,
> 
> I am new to Maxima so apologize for basic question.
> First of all, I want to use hypergeometric functions in Maxima.
> I am using Maxima 5.11.99cr2. 
> I looked up the help and the only reference I found is '%f[p,q] ([], [],
> expr)' in the paragraph '16.1 Introduction to Special Functions'.
> Nothing more on this function, when I tried to use it, for example
> ev(%f[1,1]([1],[1],5)); Maxima does not produce results, same with
> plotting and so on. I know there is more function on hypergeom, like
> hgfred to simplify the functions, I tried this one and works but I still
> do not know how to enter and handle hypergeometric functions (especially
> confluent). I could not find any manual online so please if someone
> could help me or point to the right document I would be more than
> grateful.

AFAIK, Maxima doesn't know how to evaluate hypergeometric functions 
except in very special cases, where the hypergeometric reduces to some 
other function.  %f is the hypergeometric function, and hgfred is the 
function that tries to reduce a hypergeometric function to a "simpler" 
function.

However, Bill Gosper sent some code to evaluate some hypergeometrics, 
and some of it works, but not all.  It's in the mailing list archives 
somewhere.


Ray