>Basically, if the user types in n1,
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>> (%i19) n1:sqrt(x^4-2*x^2+1);
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>then he is typing two expressions. If he means one of them, he should say which one.
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>It is unlikely he means a function with two corners, don't you think?
Well, maybe you are right about that, I don?t know.
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>That's what you came up with, abs(x-1)*ab(x+1).
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>How can he say which one? Perhaps by specifying a point, or by
>simplifying to x^2-1 or 1-x^2.
Maybe he or she does want to say the non-function which includes both answers and is bi-valued. Then isn?t is sufficient to say domain:complex?
I don?t know if the simplification of sqrt(x^2) to abs(x) is a mistake, maybe there should be another flag to use besides domain:complex, since that has other possibly unintended side effects, but another flag would fix that.
Rich