On 08/04/2010 01:42 PM, Dieter Kaiser wrote:
> Am Mittwoch, den 04.08.2010, 12:53 -0700 schrieb Paul Bowyer:
>> On 08/03/2010 01:43 AM, Dieter Kaiser wrote:
>>> <snip>
>>> Furthermore, the initial problem of sum(0^i, i, 0, n) -> 0 is not
>>> solved. We will get again 0. Perhaps this happens because of a
>>> simplification like 0^a-0^a --> 0.
>>>
>>> Dieter Kaiser
>> I was re-reading your message this morning an it suddenly struck me that
>> this might be incorrect. When I enter the following:
>> ------------------------------
>> kill(all)$
>> n:4$
>> sum(0^i, i, 0, n);
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> I get this result:
>> ------------------------------
>> 0^0 has been generated
>> -- an error. To debug this try: debugmode(true);
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> So it seems you may have less difficulties than you indicate.
>>
>> I hope the helps a little,
> It is not a problem to implement unsimplified 0^a expressions and to get
> it to work with the testsuite of Maxima. The problem is, that we might
> get unexpected and subtle problems at other places.
>
> At this time I lost the original problem, which starts the discussion
> about 0^a expressions. Please, could you give a link to the posting
> which describes the original problem.
>
> Dieter Kaiser
>
>
My original post was an attempt to describe a problem I was experiencing
with bezier curve mathematics but I found another way to explore the
problem which did not involve using sum. Since that post, I've changed
away from sbcl to gcl because it's faster and now I'm using
maxima-5.22.0. I've since solved the problem I was researching and have
working code partially implemented.
The link to my original post is here:
http://www.math.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2010/021453.html
My interest in getting the bug fixed now has more to do with future
problems I might be need to solve rather than any current urgency that
exists. My mathematics abilities (such as they were) have declined since
college because I don't use them as frequently now and I need to refer
continually to my textbooks to verify that I'm doing things correctly. I
rely on maxima to help me when I'm trying to solve problems; so when
maxima has errors then I have to do a lot of searching to discover if
the error is mine or maxima's.
I wish you well and I hope you discover a solution that is satisfactory
for all of the required conditions.
Paul Bowyer