Re: [Maxima-discuss] ((MPLUS SIMP FACTORED) 2 3) -> 3 + 2

[Robert D. <rob...@gm...>]

On Tue, Oct 29, 2024 at 8:33 AM Stavros Macrakis <mac...@gm...> wrote:

> Using great ordering for displaying products and reversed great ordering for sums is, as I said, "a crude heuristic, but it produces pretty good results". To improve on that, great should not be modified -- that should be done in nformat, which already does things like a*b^-1*c*q^-1*w*x^-1*y*z^-1 (internal format) => (a*c*w*y)/(b*q*x*z) (external format), rat(2,3)*x => (2*x)/3, x^rat(-1,2) => 1/sqrt(x), etc.
>
> Maybe you could start by making a list of cases where you think Maxima is producing suboptimal display orderings. Keep in mind that the ordering often depends on what is considered a "variable" and what is considered a "parameter".

I haven't been following closely, but anyway see also the global flag
powerdisp which governs whether "+" expressions are displayed with
terms as ordered by GREAT, or in the opposite order. I forget which is
the default.

HTH

Robert