Stavros Macrakis wrote:
> We are representing the hypergeometric function as %f[m,n](l1,l2,x),
> where m is the length of l1 and n is the length of l2.
>
> I do know that 2F1 etc. are the usual names for these functions in the
> literature, but I don't see the point of following that convention in
> Maxima, unless we're going to do something useful with it. Currently,
> we don't even check that the indexes are consistent with the lengths!:
>
> %f[0,0]([a],[b],x) => no error
I think %f is only meant for display, currently, since Maxima doesn't
know anything about %f.
>
> I also don't understand why hgfred works the way it does. It would be
> more consistent with Maxima conventions in general if %f simplified
I suspect this is how someone's thesis was done, and no one ever
integrated it completely. I agree this needs to be better integrated.
I never did it because I never felt hgfred was "good" enough.
>
> On a somewhat different topic, it would be nice if ?? hyperg and ? %f
> gave information about %f and hgfred.
There was never any documentation except the code, and I never wrote any
because hgfred and %f never felt ready for public consumption.
Perhaps it's time to revisit all of this again.
Ray