[Maxima] Strange thing in Maxima: reduction of fraction

[Raymond Toy]

>>>>> "Leo" == Leo  <sdl.web at gmail.com> writes:

    Leo> On THU, 7 DEC 2006, Raymond Toy wrote:
    Leo> [...]

    Leo> Looks like a bug.
    >> 
    >> Is it?  Maxima doesn't always simplify everything that you type in.
    >> Isn't %o2 correct, independent of any assumptions on p & q (except
    >> that I think maxima is implicitly assuming p and q are real)?
    >> 
    >> Ray

    Leo> But what about %o1 output? Isn't that a bug?

Why?  If p and q are real, isn't abs(p-q)^2 always equal to (p-q)^2?
Or do you mean that %o1 didn't simplify to something else?

Ray