global defined lists and hashed arrays in function bodies
Subject: global defined lists and hashed arrays in function bodies
From: Robert Dodier
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:58:03 -0600
On 8/24/08, van Nek <van.nek at arcor.de> wrote:
> The function definition of foo and bar seem to be the same.
> The results are different. Why?
> I had expected foo(y); => y+2
> Does mdefine react on the symbol's properties?
The problem isn't in MDEFINE but in the way subscripts are handled,
in particular, whether the symbol to which the subscript is attached is
evaluated. I think it is not too far off the mark to say that the problem
is essentially that Maxima is neither a Lisp-1 nor a Lisp-2.
I think we should pick one or the other; today I am leaning towards
Lisp-2 but some days I go the other way.
FWIW
Robert Dodier