RFC: extracting coefficients of a multivariate polynomial

As Fateman pointed out,
'append'
to a list in maxima needs O(n) operations,
where n is the number of list entries.

So I believe one of my problems came from a 'feature' of the maxima 5.13.0 
documentation. I'm a programmer with strong C++ background.
I knew I did need a list, I knew I did need an insert function to lists.
The first I found was append, you know the things children learn in 
elementary school, 'a b c ...' :-)

But in C++, appending to list is an O(1) operation,
There should really be a kind of warning in the documentation.

Regards
Andre