Improvement to nonintegerp (was: Improvement to askinteger for review/comment)



Am Donnerstag, den 15.10.2009, 14:26 +1100 schrieb Billinghurst, David
(RTATECH):
> maxima-integerp and nonintegerp both return false for "don't know".
>   featurep(sqrt(3),integer) -> false
>   featurep(sqrt(3),noninteger) -> false
> 
> I now believe the correct solution is to extend nonintegerp, which 
> is called by askinteger.  With this change
>   featurep(sqrt(3),integer) -> false
>   featurep(sqrt(3),noninteger) -> true

Yes, I think this make sense. Both functions are now consistent for this
case. I have not seen this possible solution to the problem.

> I was unsure if this would work for sqrt(N^2) when N is a large
> integer, after inspecting the code and some testing I now think it 
> is OK. I tested several cases near N^2 where N is a large Mersenne 
> prime.
> 
> OK to commit this?

I have no further comments. I think the extension of nonintegerp is
useful.

Dieter Kaiser