Each call to vandermonde_matrix causes Maxima to reload *all* of
linearalgbra. Other functions in lineralgebra autoload (say rowop),
but they don't reload all of linearalgebra every time.
I looked at max_ext, but I don't know what's going on. Does anybody
know a fix?
Try:
trace(load);
vandermonde_matrix([a,b]);
vandermonde_matrix([a,b]);
Barton