On 3/16/08, Alexey Beshenov <al at beshenov.ru> wrote:
> I found the current documentation a bit confusing. It says that
> vectorsimp(...) from the package "vect" knows how to expand expressions
> with "div", "grad", "curl" and "laplacian". But these operators are not
> listed at the reference manual index, so it seems that only vectorsimp(...)
> knows about them (?).
Yes, probably only vectorsimp and any other functions in
share/vector/vect.mac.
> Am I right and only /share/contrib/vector3d stuff can actually compute
> divergence, gradient, curl and laplacian?
No, the express function in vect.mac also computes those.
> In my opinion, the basic needed functionality is computing gradient,
> divergence, curl and laplacian in cartesian, cylindrical and spherical
> coordinates. vector3d fits these needs. All we should do is to merge it with
> vectorsimp(...) stuff, I think.
I think vect.mac has most or all of that as well. Probably we should
consider in more detail what those two packages have in common
and what is peculiar to each one.
best,
Robert Dodier