[Maxima-commits] [git] Maxima CAS branch, master, updated. branch-5_31-base-204-g29fe517

Raymond Toy <toy.raymond at gmail.com> writes:
> I haven't been following your changes very closely, but I was wondering why
> the seemingly gratuitous renaming of PTERM to PTTERM?  Does PTTERM make
> more sense in some way?

The idea is that "PT" means polynomial terms. The convention is
something like:

  - PFOO   expects a polynomial.
  - PTFOO  expects the terms of a polynomial (the CDR of a polynomial)
  - CFOO   treats its argument as a coefficient (either because it's a
           number (PCOEFP is true) or because it's a polynomial in a
           later variable than the one we're thinking about at the
           moment. 
  - PCFOO  Takes a polynomial and a coefficient

etc. etc. The "C" and "PC" conventions already existed.

Functions that expected the terms of a polynomial were often called
FOO1, but sometimes weren't (PTERM, for example), and sometimes
something called FOO1 expected a polynomial (PSIMP1, for example). I
*think* that the new naming convention is a little easier to predict:
hopefully not just for its author!

Anyway, PTERM / PTTERM expects a list of the terms of a polynomial,
rather than expecting a polynomial, which is why I made the name change.

> Also, I know it's hard, but is it possible to separate the documentation
> phase from the changes phase?  Some of your commits say you're adding
> documentation, but then lots of code is changed.  Perhaps only indentation
> changed, but still, someone might look at it and wonder. :-)

Yeah, I agree, but some of the "documentation" effort is rewriting the
code to use post-1970 control structures and avoid so many side
effects. The idea is that the code never changes meaning, but it may be
far far easier to understand afterwards. For example, I'm busily trying
to get my head around PTIMES1 at the moment, which has a do loop
containing a prog form with six(!) labels.

Maybe I'm using the wrong verb when I say "document" - what would you
suggest?


Rupert
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