2012/3/13 Javier Arantegui <javier.arantegui at gmail.com>:
> The difference between ":=" and "define" is a topic that has been
> discussed several times. It's one of those things that separate
> newbies (like me) and experts. For experts, the difference seems to be
> very clear, but most of the new users think that := is the way to
> define functions in Maxima. And, frankly the difference is very hard
> to tell if you just read the documentation.
...
> Because it's a FAQ, maybe a new sentence should be added to explain
> the consequences of that difference, and a new example should be added
> showing the different behaviour. Now, the set of examples is the same
> in both cases.
Here is a simple example:
(%i13) f(x) := expand( x*(x+1) );
(%o13) f(x) := expand(x (x + 1))
(%i14) define( g(x), expand( x*(x+1) ));
2
(%o14) g(x) := x + x
--
Jens Axel S?gaard