> It's not clear to me what you're trying to do. Maybe if you state the
> rules informally (not as Maxima declarations) I can help you formulate
> the appropriate tellsimpafter incantation.
Imagine I need a function f, such that
f(a*b) = f(g(a) * g(b))
I don't want maxima to evaluate it ad infinitum, only n steps
so if
n = 1 then f(a*b) = f(g(a) * g(b))
n = 2 then f(a*b) = f(g(g(a)) * g(g(b)))
n = 3 then f(a*b) = f(g(g(g(a))) * g(g(g(b))))
..