[Maxima] %i and (complex 0 1)

[Richard Fateman]

macsyma was originally written in an earlier dialect of lisp (maclisp)
which did not have native data types of complex or rational.
Common Lisp has rational, complex  (which could include a
pair of rationals...). Using Common Lisp numbers for Maxima
numbers would probably be a benefit if it could be done
without introducing bugs.

RJF


Raymond Toy wrote:

>>>>>>"Dan" == Dan Stanger <dan.stanger@ieee.org> writes:
>>>>>>            
>>>>>>
>
>    Dan> Stavros Macrakis wrote:
>    >> There are some other surprising things that would have to be done.
>    >> Is numberp(%i) true?
>
>    Dan> Testing shows that it is not.  Does anyone know the reason for this?
>
>My totally uninformed guess would be that numberp was written when
>maxima only supported real numbers.  Complex numbers were added later,
>and numberp wasn't changed.
>
>But I'm just speculating.
>
>Ray
>
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