Maxima Manual - Example Page 15 - different result for ''sin(1);
Subject: Maxima Manual - Example Page 15 - different result for ''sin(1);
From: Stavros Macrakis
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:40:46 -0500
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 4:04 PM, Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu>wrote:
> Well, the commercial Macsyma returns, for ''sin(1), sin(1). I assume
> that DOE Macsyma and Schelter's version did the same.... Namely, converting
> %sin to $sin does not change sin(1) to its numerical value.
>
If I remember correctly, in MIT Macsyma as of 1977 or so, trig functions in
verb form *did* force float results.
> If ''foo changes the meaning if foo is one of the trig functions or
> foo is declared to be a noun, then it should be explained to do what it does
> in the documentation, especially since fails to change so many other things.
>
I don't remember ''x() doing anything other than parse-time substitution.
But in Maxima 5.15:
(%i1) declare(nn,noun)$
(%i2) simp:false$
(%i3) do ?print(readonly("?"))$
f(2);
(($F) 2) ?
'f(2);
((%F) 2) ?
''f(2);
(($F) 2) ? << no difference here
nn(2);
((%NN) 2) ?
'nn(2);
((%NN) 2) ?
''nn(2);
(($NN) 2) ? << but different when nn declared as noun
I have no idea whether this is an ancient (DOE Macsyma) feature or a new
addition, but it does seem ugly.
-s