constants, simplification, numerical evaluation



 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: macrakis at gmail.com [mailto:macrakis at gmail.com] On 
> Behalf Of Stavros Macrakis
> Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 3:37 PM
> To: fateman at EECS.Berkeley.EDU
> Cc: maxima at math.utexas.edu
> Subject: Re: [Maxima] constants, simplification, numerical evaluation
> 
> On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 6:12 PM, Richard Fateman
> <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> >  %pi^x+%e^x, numer --> %e^x+3.1415...^x;
> >  can anyone explain why this should be?
> 
> Richard,
> 
> This behavior has been in there since the olden days, 

Yes, I know.

> and is
> intentional (but arguably misguided).  Summary: if you want uniform
> behavior, set %enumer:true, and you're all set. 

OK, but ..
 If you want to do
> better than that....
> 
<long explanation, more procedure than logical defense, though.. thanks>


I think that an annoying aspect has been that 
(3+4*%i)^2, numer  doesn't do what you probably want; 
compare with rectform(%);

I would like to take the special check for $%pi out of the main program of
the simplifier, the program simplifya...
RJF