factor/simplification problem



On 5/17/07, Ryan Krauss <ryanlists at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> It seems like the
> else map(lambda([q],divsimp(q,div)),ex)
> line is the key to the now beautiful results (even without seperating
> my numerator and denominator explicitly).


The map *is* separating the numerator and denominator explicitly, since the
main operator of a quotient is "//" (should be "/" -- don't ask), not "+".

Am I rightly understanding this very powerful line: it seems like map
> is essentially recursively walking the branches of part.


Exactly.

It seems like these lines ...SNIP...correspond to part(ex,1)
> and ...SNIP... corresponds to part(ex,2)
> and so on.  Is that what  the documentation for map is saying?


Right.  Some simple examples:

       map( f, a+b+c) => f(a)+f(b)+f(c)
       map(f, a/b) => f(a)/f(b)

            -s