> --
>
> Are there some documented inherent limitations of Maxima's solve()
> which prevent it from finding a solution to the first problem?
This is a bug. Solve should call algsys. algsys should solve this system.
Maxima's algsys is apparently buggy at this moment. It is highly likely
that
this system was solved by an earlier version of algsys.
Directly calling algsys also returns empty.
There are in fact 4 point solutions.
RJF