Robert Dodier <robert.dodier at gmail.com> writes:
> I don't know any easy way to cause "if" to evaluate its branches. It
> seems like a reasonable thing to do in some circumstances.
Except that people expect "if" to short-circuit. That is
if x>0 then sqrt(x) else error("aargh");
shouldn't cause an error when x is positive... Similarly, what if one
branch was a long computation? (Such as a complicated integral!)
This particular design decision in Maxima seems like a good idea.
Rupert
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