Maxima strings reimplementation as Lisp strings/ rationals are rationals???

Congratulations on doing strings!  I hope the merge happens on your
schedule.

A change that I have tried in part, in some experimental versions of the
maxima simplifier, is to make rational numbers be lisp rational numbers.
That is,  ((rat) 1 2)  goes away in favor of lisp's 1/2. 

A global change of this nature would require more shakedown than the string
change, I think. Programs that use appropriate abstractions like numerator
and denominator  will work; programs that assume that the numerator of a rat
is its cadr will have problems.

A downside to this alternative representation is -- I had some thoughts
about introducing Maxima rational numbers to represent real infinities by
((rat) 1 0)  and ((rat) -1 0)    as well as undefined,  ((rat) 0 0) . But
these never caught on, and it is not clear that in a context in which
infinity can be unsigned or complex, that this is worth doing.
RJF




> -----Original Message-----
> From: maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu 
> [mailto:maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Dodier
>.....
> I have created a CVS branch, strings-are-lisp-strings-branch, and
> committed changes on the branch to reimplement Maxima strings
>.....