sqrt vs ^0.5



On 11/10/2011 1:27 PM, Stavros Macrakis wrote:
> I don't recall any argument about something being on or off -- what do 
> you have in mind?
>
> That mixed arithmetic between rationals and floats converts to floats? 
>  Yes, that is Maxima's behavior and as far as I know that can't be 
> turned off -- so there is no 'default'.  Unfortunately, constant 
> expressions which are not literal rationals don't participate in this 
> behavior: sqrt(5.0) - sqrt(5) does not simplify to 0.  In my opinion, 
> it should.
>
>            -s

Interesting suggestion.  It seems to me that it would make the following 
2 commands synonymous:

%,numer

%+0.0


If so, maybe that tells us how your idea could be implemented.
Or might also warn us about unintended consequences.   (Looks OK to me..)