You will probably not find this especially useful, but
:lisp (apropos "$")
will provide a list of all names that begin with "$", which constitute all the Maxima-defined built-in functions that are present in the lisp system in memory. That is, a function named $xyzzy in the list (or perhaps $XYZZY) is the Maxima function xyzzy().
This list will not include functions defined only if you read in extra files.
Also, all lisp functions are potentially accessible in Maxima, since ?foo(x) calls the lisp function foo.
So in fact you can also call any common lisp function.
You may ask, why is there not such a lpre-built complete annotated function list?
A good question.
Another good question is, why is there not a catalog of all the error messages that can come from Maxima, and what they mean?
I suspect the original answer was, the students building Macsyma couldn't be bothered to document everything.
The current answer is probably, the volunteers working on Maxima can't be bothered, either. Especially documenting stuff that they didn't write.
Perhaps looking at the documentation for the commercial Macsyma will give more insight, but I think that it does not include error messages, and I don't know how complete its index really is.
RJF
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Apparently, the package numericalio provides facility for my 2nd
question.
Thanks for the answers to my first. erf(5.0) returns a numerical
result.
I am still interested in receiving an answer to my 3rd question. How do
you have Maxima list all available functions - i.e. those that are
built-in, those that are loaded from a package, and those I define. The
"functions" command handles the latter only, apparently.
Thanks.
________________________________
From: Bartlett, Charles S.
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 3:08 PM
To: 'maxima at math.utexas.edu'
Subject: Use of erf(x); read text file; command to display available
functions
Why doesn't erf(5) produce a numerical result, whereas sin(.3)
or gamma(.2) do?
I am using Maxima 5.12.0.
It appears that my version is not finding a definition for erf.
--------------------
Can Maxima read a text file containing a column of numbers?
--------------------
Is there a function to display available functions - not just
those defined by a user?
Thanks.
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