maxima error: Quotient by a polynomial of higher degree

In the past, changing the gcd algorithm and re-running the program 
apparently has helped.
try
gcd:subres;

then run again.

For what it is worth, what happens is that something like N/D is 
computed.  Reducing
to lowest terms involves this:

G:  gcd(N,D)

then dividing N by G,   and D by G   to reduce to lowest terms.

Somewhere between computing the gcd and doing the division,  an error
is made.
   Sometimes people have hypothesized that the gcd computation is wrong.
I suspect that these problems may occur when the polynomials involve %i
or algebraic numbers, and some simplification occurs after computing the
gcd  so that N  or D  is simpler  (lower degree than when the gcd was 
produced).

If however this is the explanation, changing the gcd algorithm should 
not matter,
but there may be other issues.

There are simpler examples in the bug reports.   It would be possible to 
track this
down with massive tracing of internal functions like pgcd pquotient   etc.

RJF

On 12/4/2013 10:52 AM, Robert Dodier wrote:
> On 2013-12-02, Jianrong Li <lijr07 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I am trying to do some computations using maxima. The following are the
>> codes. There is an error: Quotient by a polynomial of higher degree when I
>> am trying to compute: ratsimp(R(1,2,R(2,3, R(1,2,[c_one,c_two,c_three])))
>> -R(2,3,R(1,2, R(2,3,[c_one,c_two,c_three]))));
> ratsimp calls functions to compute polynomial quotients, and at some
> point, one of them (for the record, PQUOTIENT or RQUOTIENT) is called
> with arguments that it doesn't like, so it emits an error message.
> That is a bug in ratsimp and/or whatever functions it calls.
> Unfortunately, I don't know how to work around the problem.
>
> If you have the time, can you please submit a bug report to:
> http://sf.net/p/maxima/bugs
>
> Sorry I can't be more helpful,
>
> Robert Dodier
>
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