Thanks Richard. The concat trick is especially useful.
I also realized that maxima (specifically the eigenvalues function) has
no problem with
A : matrix([-alpha[1],alpha[1]],[beta[1],-beta[1]]),
for example. The whole issue is the lambda. I knew that was a
"reserved word", but I forgot. It's a very convenient symbol in some
contexts; is there no way to deactivate its special meaning?
By the way, the TeXmacs interface recognizes greek letters without the
initial "%".
Kostas
Richard Fateman wrote:
> Suggestions:
> 1. If you want to see the greek letter lambda, use the symbol %lambda.
> 2. The symbol lambda has a special meaning to Maxima, related to the lambda
> calculus. I'm not sure why it would produce an error here, but it does.
> 3. In terms of display, a trick I sometimes use to make displays smaller is
> to define (for example) mu[i]:=concat(M,i).
> This puts the symbol all on the same line; no subscript line is necessary.
>
> RJF
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu
>> [mailto:maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu] On Behalf Of Kostas Oikonomou
>> Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 8:16 AM
>> To: maxima
>> Subject: subscripted variables for display
>>
>> I would like to be able to compute the eigenvalues of the
>> matrix
>>
>> A : matrix([-lambda[1],lambda[1]],[mu[1],-mu[1]])
>>
>> using eigenvalues(). Maxima reports an error:
>>
>> Maxima encountered a Lisp error:
>>
>> Type-error in KERNEL::OBJECT-NOT-LIST-ERROR-HANDLER: 1 is
>> not of type LIST
>>
>> Now I am using the array lambda purely for aesthetic (nice
>> display) purposes, in the TeXmacs front end. That is, I
>> don't care about the fact that lambda[2] comes after
>> lambda[1], etc. And I have another matrix
>>
>> B : matrix([-lambda[2],lambda[2]],[mu[2],-mu[2]])
>>
>> that uses related notation. Is there some way to make
>> maxima treat lambda and mu purely as symbols?
>> Or is there some other way to achieve subscripting?
>>
>> Kostas
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>>
>