Robert Dodier writes:
> On 11/18/07, Vadim V. Zhytnikov <vvzhy at mail.ru> wrote:
>
>> In many places in Maxima manual uses terms "atom" and "symbol".
>> It is clear both these Maxima terms have Lisp origin and thus
>> symbol stands for something which is usually called identifier
>> in other computer languages. On the other hand atom is something
>> more general and embraces symbols, strings and numbers (at least).
>> But I see that in many-many places Maxima manual uses term atom
>> in the context where actually is appropriate.
>
> Without looking I don't know whether the terms atom, symbol,
> and variable are used appropriately. I guess in general that
> "variable" should be preferred as the term to indicate
> algebraic indeterminates. But it sounds like this is a problem that
> needs to be reviewed case by case.
Agreed.
>
>> See for example recent new description of
>> assignment operator in Operators.texi (Maxima CVS).
>
> Well, when I wrote that I was attempting to be careful about the
> distinction between simple variables and subscripted variables,
> since Maxima does something interesting with the latter in assignment.
> I'll take another look at it and see if it can't be clarified.
>
In this particular case maybe it is enough to replace all
"atom" by "symbol" IMHO.
--
Vadim V. Zhytnikov
<vvzhy at mail.ru>
<vvzhy at netorn.ru>