Barton,
When asksign is needed, it is useful. The main reason why I find it annoying
is that most of the time I encounter it when I am using Maxima, the actual
result is not dependent on the sign (i.e., I get the same result regardless
of what answer I provide); it prevents me from running calculations in
scripts because it feels lonely and wants to interact with me; and yet there
are silly tricks to prevent it from occurring (but no consistency), such as
multiplying an expression (which is otherwise real) by %i prior to taking a
limit and -%i after.
In other words, almost all the time, rather than helping me, it stands in my
way, but there's no easy way for me to tell it to bugger off.
Viktor
-----Original Message-----
From: Barton Willis [mailto:willisb at unk.edu]
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 8:52 PM
To: Robert Dodier
Cc: Viktor T. Toth; Maxima at math.utexas.edu; Raymond Toy; Raymond Toy
Subject: Re: [Maxima] atan2(x,x)
-----maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu wrote: -----
>Well,?asksign?certainly?is?annoying.
Asksign is annoying when asks about the sign of a huge expression or
an expression involving local variables unknown to the user. Other
times, asksign is like having Maxima be on belay (catchs you if you
slip).
I think every asksign should allow the "I don't know" answer--after
that, either the calculation croaks, returns an noun form, or is able
to recover. And I suppose the "I don't know" answer could be settable
to the default.
Barton