Re: Ugly representation of square roots in console mode

"Alasdair McAndrew" <[email protected]> writes:

> Axiom represents square roots by a mixture of ascii symbols which are
> supposed to approximate the square root sign, so that sqrt(2)+sqrt(3) looks
> like
> 
>     +-+    +-+
>    \|3  + \|2
> 
> (You'll need to view the above in a monospaced font).  And n-th roots are
> even worse: 2^(1/3)+3^(1/4) comes out as
> 
>     4+-+   3+-+
>     \|3  + \|2
> 
> This is just ugly.  

It seems that taste differs: I find the above very beautiful and nice to read.

> Can axiom, be coerced to represent n-th and square roots in one of these
> simpler forms?

I think that should be doable: look at

(13) -> (2^(1/3))::OUTFORM::SEX

   (13)  (ROOT 2 3)
                                                            Type: SExpression
(14) -> (2^(1/x))::OUTFORM::SEX

   (14)  (** 2 (/ 1 x))
                                                            Type: SExpression

so you could just modify the responsible lines in OutputForm

        root:    $ -> $
          ++ root(f) creates a form for the square root of form f.
        root:    ($, $) -> $
          ++ root(f,n) creates a form for the nth root of form f.


        root a     == [eform ROOT,    a]
        root(a,b)  == [eform ROOT,    a, b]

to your liking, i.e., something like

        root a     == a ** (1/2)
        root(a, b) == a ** (1/b)

You should then recompile outform.spad, and see whether it works.

Martin