-----maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu wrote: -----
>FYI,?I'm?currently?adding?support?for?a?Heaviside?step?function
>hstep(x)?such?that?hstep(0)=1/2.??Perhaps?we?should?support?all?three
>common?variants?of?unit_step:?left-continuous,?right-continuous,?and
>hstep.??It?should?not?be?too?hard?to?search?for?all?occurrences?of
>unit_step?in?the?code?and?incorporate?support?for?the?other?variants.
>
>What?do?you?think?
There are simplifications involving sums and products of these functions
that would be difficult to detect; for example
x * (left_continuous_step(x) - right_continuous_step(x)) = 0.
Some days I think we should concentrate on making Maxima conditionals (if then else)
better instead of appending more step-like functions. It be great if Maxima do
(if x < 0 then 0 else 1) - (if x <= 0 then 0 else 1) --> if x = 0 then 1 else 0
and
x * (if x = 0 then 1 else 0) --> 0.
At least for linear inequalities, I think this is algorithmically possible.
--Barton