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#335 sort! drops list elements ←	↑	→ #338 'eval' misses main variable

#336 'binomial$COMBF' is not evaluated consistently

Edit detail for #336 'binomial$COMBF' is not evaluated consistently revision 1 of 1

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Editor: Time: 2007/11/17 22:29:11 GMT-8
Note: include issue number in patch

changed:
-
Consider

\begin{axiom}
binomial(n,2)
binomial(n,n-2)
\end{axiom}

which should, by the definition of the binomial coefficient, give identical results.

The attached patch fixes this.

There is, however, a more fundamental issue to consider: Often, it is desirable that such expressions are not "expanded", but some thought needs to go into this. In my current application (in SPAD), I know a priori that a given 'ex' in 'EXPR INT' (possibly containing binomial coefficients or expressions of the form $(a+b)^5$) can always be retracted to a 'FRAC POLY INT'. So, in this case, I really need "full" expansion.

I think, MuPAD and Maple have a 'convert' function for this. In Axiom, it really would be the responsibility of 'retract'/'retractIfCan'. But that would mean to have at least one other property attached to operators, that tells Axiom how to 'retract' to various domains. I guess that possibly different functions would have to be called for different domains we would like to retract to...

Martin

<a href="binomial.patch">binomial.patch</a>

Consider

fricas

(1) -> binomial(n,2)

$\label{eq1}\frac{{{n}^{2}}- n}{2}$

(1)

Type: Expression(Integer)

fricas

binomial(n,n-2)

$\label{eq2}\frac{{{n}^{2}}- n}{2}$

(2)

Type: Expression(Integer)

which should, by the definition of the binomial coefficient, give identical results.

The attached patch fixes this.

There is, however, a more fundamental issue to consider: Often, it is desirable that such expressions are not "expanded", but some thought needs to go into this. In my current application (in SPAD), I know a priori that a given ex in EXPR INT (possibly containing binomial coefficients or expressions of the form ) can always be retracted to a FRAC POLY INT. So, in this case, I really need "full" expansion.

I think, MuPAD? and Maple have a convert function for this. In Axiom, it really would be the responsibility of retract/retractIfCan. But that would mean to have at least one other property attached to operators, that tells Axiom how to retract to various domains. I guess that possibly different functions would have to be called for different domains we would like to retract to...

Martin

binomial.patch