Carrying around undefined forms like this has been proposed before, but
first think about what semantics you'd want around them.
Is 3/0 equal to 2/0? In that case, perhaps they should both simplify to 1/0.
Is 1/0 > 2345?
Is -1/0 < 1/0?
Is -1/0 the same as minf?
Is 1/0 - 1/0 equal to 0? What is 3/0 - 2/0 ?
What is (3/0)*0? Should that simplify to 3? to 1? Or just remain
unsimplified? If unsimplified, what use is it?
-s
On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 17:27, Richard Hennessy
<rich.hennessy at verizon.net>wrote:
> If you type in :
>
> (%i5) kill(all);
> (%o0) done
> (%i1) 3/4;
> (%o1) 3/4
> (%i2) 3/2;
> (%o2) 3/2
> (%i3) 3/1;
> (%o3) 3
> (%i4) 3/0;
> expt: undefined: 0 to a negative exponent.
> -- an error. To debug this try: debugmode(true);
>
> Since Maxima is not trying to compute the answer, it just simplifies the
> input in these cases, why the error? Would it be better if you could get
> the unsimplified form back?
>
> (%i5) 3/0;
> (%o5) 3/0
>
> Rich
>
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