Leo Butler wrote:
>
> Because I noted that Maxima does not observe the same distinction, I
> wanted to know where the distinction lies and its rationale.
>
Sometimes decisions are made by programmers along the way, and the
people nominally in charge
don't care, or don't know. That's why some design choices look strange.
Some student thought
about it for a minute and wrote the program. So some things are the way
they are without a
complete rationale.
Other design decisions are made after careful deliberation and only
after some time are shown to be
right (or wrong).
Finding a theoretical basis for everything in Maxima is unlikely to hold up.
I have thought about trying, however, to divide up what Maxima does into
ET -- equivalence transformations --- applying symbolic identities.
AT -- approximation transformations -- e.g. numerical or symbolic
approximations
DT -- derivation approximations -- e.g. take an expression or two and
make another nonequivalent one. e.g. A+B, diff(A,x), etc.
Also I/O like plotting.
Now is sin(0) --> 0 an ET or an AT?
RJF