semi-newbie | differences in solve



It's unfortunate that solve doesn't solve this case.

Solve does succeed on very similar cases, e.g. solve( factor(df), p ) or
even solve( df, [p, xxx]) (where xxx doesn't even appear in df!).  And both
linsolve and algsys solve it correctly.

Why is this?  Well, solve and linsolve each have a certain "bag of tricks",
and it happens that solve's doesn't cover this case.  Solve does call
linsolve or algsys when there are multiple equations or multiple variables
(e.g. the [p,xxx] case above), but not when there's just one.

Looks like solve's bag of tricks should be extended... (or repaired ... for
all I know, this could be a regression).

Sorry for the inconvenience.

           -s

On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 13:26, egc <cooch17 at verizon.net> wrote:

> f : p^y*(1-p)^(N-y);