New Maxima user has problem



On Thu, 2008-03-13 at 08:17 -0400, Raymond Toy (RT/EUS) wrote:
> Bob Baker wrote:
> > Well, I tried running Maxima directly in a command window.  I gave the 
> > commands and got exactly the same reply.  So I don't think Euler can be 
> > blamed for it.  Did you try these commands to see what happens on your 
> > system?
> 
> Yes, I did.  That's how I knew it was asking a question.  Doesn't it ask 
> you?  Did it run for a long time before the error message?  It runs for 
> quite a while, but I stopped it after a bit.
> 
> What version are you using?

Using 5.14.0 + Clisp, I get the same result as Raymond (a question and
an integration that never ends). Using 5.14.0 + GCL, I get the same
error message Bob is getting and no questions.

Bob, notice that your integral could be written in a simpler form:

f(x):=log(2-cos(x)+sqrt(3+cos(x)*(cos(x)-4)))$
integrate(2*(1-exp(-abs(1)*f(x))*cos(3*x))/(exp(f(x))-exp(-f(x))),x,0,%
pi);

(I don't know how to make Maxima expand sinh(x) in terms of
exponentials, without doing the same for sin(x)).

using that simpler form, 5.14.0+clisp immediately gives up, while 5.14.0
+GCL now gives a different error message:

Too many contexts.
 -- an error.  To debug this try debugmode(true);

Hope that helps someone to tells us what GCL is doing differently from
Clisp.
Regards,
Jaime Villate