On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 1:45 PM, Robert Dodier <robert.dodier at gmail.com>wrote:
> I think it's preferable to return something messy and correct,
> rather than something simple and incorrect.
> Ideally the messy return value is something that can be
> simplified in the presence of further information
> (e.g. value assigned to x) although I don't think that's
> an absolute requirement.
>
>
I think elliptic_e(x,m) where x is a number (or %pi) should return the
messy expression that might be simplified. But I would hate it if
elliptic_e(x,m) always simplified to
elliptic_e(x-%pi*round(x/%pi),m)+2*round(x/%pi)*elliptic_ec(m) for symbolic
x and m. When x is a number (or %pi, %gamma, %e, etc.), maxima can do
something reasonable.
I think this is a decent tradeoff.
Ray