Hello Volker,
>> Hello,
>>
>> there is a long-standing problem with the package gf:
> Hello Oliver,
> for that reason gf was fully reviewed. There are about 2000 new lines
> of code. I do not expect they are free of bugs. So you are invited to
> find some.
Sure! (The "long-standing problem" wasn't meant to be negative --- I just
had it in our files for some time, that made it "long-standing" ;-)).
> To which documentation do you refer?
With 5.29.0 comes a file "gf_manual.pdf":
Finite Fields Computations in Maxima
Fabrizio Caruso
caruso at dm.unipi.it
Jacopo D?Aurizio
elianto84 at gmail.com
Alasdair McAndrew
amca01 at gmail.com
Volker van Nek
volkervannek at gmail.com
April, 2008 - December, 2012
> PS: Also in git (but not part of 5.29) is implemented what you
> proposed in an earlier mail: gf_set now returns a structure which
> contains all data to allow 'gf_set_again(structure)' to construct the
> same field from this data without a second computation.
Great! Actually, one would then also need a function which just returns
that structure, in order to be able to write "safe" functions, which
store the current state of gf, set it to a new value, and upon leave
reset it to the old value.
One could use "gf_set()" (no arguments), but perhaps "gf_get()" would be
better.
Best
Oliver