Thank you for your bug report "maxima: Incorrect remainder evaluation with unbound variables" ( https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1013232).
A simpler version of your report: remainder(5,x) => 5 remainder(5,2) => 1 remainder(y^2-x^2, x+y+1) => 2*x+1 The *remainder *function performs *explicit polynomial division,* and never returns a noun form (a.k.a. unmodified input). I think what you're looking for is the *mod* function, which is the *mathematical*, *declarative, *or* simplifying* version of the function: mod(5,x) => mod(5,x) mod(5,2) => 1 mod(y^2-x^2, x+y+1) => mod(y^2-x^2, x+y+1) Unfortunately, *mod* currently doesn't have many simplifications defined for it: declare(q,integer) mod(4*q+2,q) => mod(4*q+2,q) ... why not mod(q+2,q) ? It really should have been able to perform that last simplification. Be careful: *mod*, *remainder, *and *modulus* aren't defined the same on integers: mod(8,5) => 3 remainder(8,5) => 3 rat(8),modulus:5 => -2 mod(-8,5) => 2 remainder(-8,5) => -3 rat(-8),modulus:5 => 2 On Wed, May 14, 2025 at 5:48 PM Camm Maguire <c...@maguirefamily.org> wrote: > tags 1013232 forwarded maxima-disc...@lists.sourceforge.net > thanks > > Greetings, and thanks for your report! > > ============================================================================= > Dear Maintainer, > > entering > > 2 * remainder(45, 7); > > returns 6, as expected. > > > But using an unbound variable, a in this case, > > 2 * remainder(45, a); > > returns 90, which is incorrect. The input should be returned unchanged. > > ============================================================================= > > Take care, > -- > Camm Maguire c...@maguirefamily.org > ========================================================================== > "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." -- Baha'u'llah > > > _______________________________________________ > Maxima-discuss mailing list > maxima-disc...@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/maxima-discuss >
