Re: [Maxima-discuss] bfloat issue

[Barton W. <wi...@un...>]

Does the limit function (with one argument) do what you would like it to do? Examples:


    (%i3) map('limit, [zeroa+2014, 1/zeroa, 1/zerob, zeroa^3]);
    (%o3) [2014,inf,-inf,0]


There are limitations to Maxima's handling of such things; for example you might not like


    (%i5) zeroa-zeroa;
    (%o5) 0


The labeled box mechanism gives a partial workaround, perhaps:


    (%i32) box(zeroa,1) - box(zeroa,1);
    (%o32) 0

    (%i33) box(zeroa,1) - box(zeroa,2);
    (%o33) zeroa-zeroa


    (%i34) limit(%);
    (%o34) 1/inf-1/inf


The last result seems suboptimal.


--Barton



--Barton
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I am trying to define infinitesimal values to use in symbolic calculation. Obviously  numerically such values are evaluated to 0.