taylor series, bfloat, zerop enhancements, something to think about, vs. Macsyma



On 1/4/2012 8:42 AM, John Lapeyre wrote:
>> also, bfloat(1/3,100)  gives 100 digits of 1/3.  Maxima's bfloat
>> ignores 2nd. argument.
> There is something like that in mixima; maybe it could be adapted.
> It even goes a bit further, but also obscures what's happening.
>
> (%i1) [ Head( N(Pi)) , Head( N(Pi,16) ), Head( N(Pi,17) ) ];
> (%o1)                         [Real, Real, Real]
> (%i2) MiximaHeadStrict : false$
>
> (%i3) [ Head( N(Pi)) , Head( N(Pi,16) ), Head( N(Pi,17) ) ];
> (%o3)                        [Real, Real, BFloat]
>
> It might also be nice to display a single number
> with higher precision without changing the fpprintprec.
maybe this??

print_one_number_prec(x,p):=block([fpprintprec:p], print(x))$


> btw. I don't know if maxima has something like Head() or lisp's
> type-of. It's useful to have a what_is_this() function.

what_is_this(x):=if ?atom(x) then ?type\-of(x)   else ?caar(x)

not built in, but could be...
>
> -- John Lapeyre
> _______________________________________________
> Maxima mailing list
> Maxima at math.utexas.edu
> http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima