We have two open bug reports related to "fast arrays":
Bug ID: 903145 - make_array arrays not well integrated
Bug ID: 1714200 - use_fast_arrays = lots of bugs
The last time, I have committed some code to get "fast arrays" to work
as expected. MAKE_ARRAY creates arrays of the type fixnum, flonum,and
hashed. The type functional is working as expected and the display of
these arrays is more consistent. The function ARRAY creates "fast
arrays" of the types fixnum, flonum, and hashed, if the option variable
USE_FAST_ARRAYS is true. Furthermore, the functions ARRAYINFO and
LISTARRAY work for all types of "fast arrays".
Because "fast arrays" are Lisp arrays in the value cell of a symbol,
this type of arrays is not suited for symbolic calculations. Therefore,
I think, we should not try to integrate this type of arrays better in
Maxima. We should emphasize in the documentation the point, that "fast
arrays" are not suitable for symbolic calculations and close the open
bug reports as "won't fix".
Furthermore, I would like to suggest to cut out the option variable
USE_FAST_ARRAYS. This option variable breaks Maximas facilities to work
symbolically with arrays. The only way to generate "fast arrays" should
be the function MAKE_ARRAY.
At last, I would like to suggest to cut out the type FUNCTIONAL for
"fast arrays" and to simplify the code accordingly. I do not see a
benefit of this functionality, but it makes the code more complicated.
Dieter Kaiser