Dear Daniel,
I really like the "format" package.
load("format");
Then
format(a+b*x+c*x,%poly(x),%factor);
There is information about this online at
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.50.9838
In this case macsyma\approx maxima.
Chris
On Thu, 26 Aug 2010, Rupert Swarbrick wrote:
> "Daniel M. Israel" <dmi1 at lanl.gov> writes:
>> Is there a simple way to get maxima to simplify
>>
>> a+b*x+c*x
>>
>> to
>>
>> a+(b+c)*x
>>
>> (In real life, a,b,c, and x may all be more complex expressions.)