On Tue, Sep 06, 2005 at 04:09:36PM +0200, Roland Winkler wrote: > Neon Absentius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > Sorry if this is not the right list for this question. > > > > Is there a way to suspend some of the automatic simplifications that > > calc performs? In particular I am interested in suspending the > > assumption that multiplication is commutative. This would allow for > > symbolic calculations with entities that are not necessarily numbers > > or elements of some vector space. > > It's a pretty tricky issue to get useful results when doing > analytical calculations with noncommuting variables.
It seems to me that is tricky to get useful results when doing any calculations! In any case I am mostly interested in algebraic rather than analytic results. > I doubt that you will get what you want when you just remove the > assumption that multiplication is commutative. Depends on what do you mean by "just" by "remove" and by "assumption". When I say "suspend the assumption" I mean (obviously) to also suspend its consequences, for example there should be a "left" and a "right" division. It depends also on what I want, which (at the moment of writing at least) is rather modest, I will be happy if I am able to work on a free group (or a tensor algebra) and define relations as rewrite rules. Ideally the multiplication should not be assumed commutative (or the variables invertible) unless explicitly declared so. > > Roland -- Most precious among the relics remaining of Peter's skeleton in the Vatican are 29 fragments of one of his skulls. (St. Peter's other skull is preserved in a reliquary at the Cathedral of St. John Lateran.) -- Frank R. Zindler, "Of Bones and Boners" _______________________________________________ Help-gnu-emacs mailing list Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs