Years ago, we added a "final rearrangement" to the property lists of
atoms that had simplification
properties, so that the most-likely-used property would be first on the
symbol's prop-list.
This is the operators property. Thus to access the simplification
program associated with the sine function,
one looks for the operators property on the prop-list of %sin.
Now it seems that this rearrangement, which was done just prior to the
final dump of the binary, has been left off. (I think it is still done
if one dumps out a Maxima in some "less supported" lisps since the
"lisp" method for making a binary, does this. At least for allegro CL)
Anyway, looking at 5.20.1 GCL
The operators property of %sin is 28th on the property list.
the operators property of mplus is 30th on the property list. (though
that may not be where it is usually found,
since mplus, mtimes are probably special cases...)
It would be nice if someone fixed this. Searching 30 elements down on a
list may be a small increment for each call to the %sin simplifier, but
it is pointless and unnecessary. Note that this rearrangement
can be done AFTER loading up a Maxima, -- all you need is a list of all
or most atoms with "operators" properties.
At the moment, the fastest properties for %sin have to do with TeX
typesetting; surely not the most time-critical
operations.
RJF