[Maxima] constants, simplification, numerical evaluation

[Richard Fateman]

> 
> > (RJF)  I would like to take the special check for $%pi out of the 
> main program of
> >  the simplifier, the program simplifya...
> 
> (SM) Not sure what you mean here.  

(RJF) I mean this piece of source code...

(defmfun simplifya (x y)
  (cond ((atom x) (cond ((and (eq x '$%pi) $numer) %pi-val) (t x)))
	((not $simp) x)....

for the uninitiated, this is the start of the listing of the lisp for the
main program of the simplifier, called recursively within the simplifier.

x is the expression to be simplified.  y, if non-nil, says that the
subexpressions are previously simplified, I think.

RJF