On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 4:15 AM, Chris Smith <[email protected]> wrote:

> > Even so, the differences between gcd, terms_gcd, gcd_terms (yes, there
> are
> > both), gcd_list, as_primitive_content, as_independent, collect, factor,
> etc.
> > (what others are there?)
>
> factor_terms, factor_nc, factor_list, .coeff(), and primitive(), too.
>
> > are very confusing.
>
> I've tried to add to the docstrings of these over time. Hopefully
> those are helpful. e.g. the docstring fro primitive points out a
> difference between it and as_content_primitive().
>

The docstrings of these functions are indeed very nice, but I think we
should also have a document in Sphinx that lists them all and clearly
explains the differences.  For one thing, no one is going to know about all
the functions (you can see that even I missed a good chunk of them).
 Second, the docstrings explain nicely what each function does, but maybe
don't compare them so well against other functions. For example, it's not
even entirely clear that factor/factor_list and sqf/sqf_list are identical
algorithms except in the form of the answer. The document in Sphinx would
ideally focus on the differences between the functions, rather than the
specifics of each.  A table listing functionality subtitles would hep.
Additionally, a discussion on which function(s) are best for some common
use cases would help.

By the way, as_coeff_Mul/as_coeff_mul, and as_coeff_add/as_coeff_Add are
four more.

Would you be up for at least starting such a thing?  I think you know more
about these functions than anyone.  If not, let's create a GCI task for it
(but it would be great if you could do it, because again I think no one
knows more about these than you do).

Aaron Meurer


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