The specification of sqrfree()

[Roberto Bagnara]

Hi there,

we are developing a GiNaC-based recurrence relations solver.
During this work we have found that GiNaC's documentation
is not very precise about what a "square-free factorization" is.
Below you find what we believe is a sensible definition
(which also seems to be compatible with the current implementation).
Please, check if that is also consistent with the specification
of GiNaC (we would like to avoid relying on non-features that
may disappear on a subsequent release).

  A polynomial p(X) in Q[X] is said <EM>square-free</EM>
  if, whenever two polynomials q(X) and r(X) in Q[X]
  are such that p(X) = q(X)^2*r(X), q(X) is constant.

  The sqrfree function computes polynomials p1(X), ..., pk(X)
  and positive integers e1, ..., ek such that
  p(X) = p1(X)^e1 * ... * pk(X)^ek
  and p1(X) * ... * pk(X) is square-free.

If you agree with the above definition we are willing to provide
Doxygen and TeXinfo patches against the current sources.
All the best,

       the PURRS team

-- 
Prof. Roberto Bagnara
Computer Science Group
Department of Mathematics, University of Parma, Italy
http://www.cs.unipr.it/~bagnara/
mailto:bagnara at cs.unipr.it