[OS X TeX] Binomial Expansion

[Alain Schremmer]

Ross Moore wrote:

> TeX was not designed to do symbolic algebra; though,
> in principle, it has enough features to be able to.
> Some packages have been written to do a bit, but they
> are hardly efficient beyond simple calculations.

That was my original impression but then I saw polynom!

> Do you have packages like Mathematica, or Maple ?
> These can be run from the command-line, and programmed
> to write their output into a file.
> Indeed, there's usually a TeXForm, which is designed
> for use within (La)TeX jobs.

I got a (legal) copy of Maple from my school last summer but wasn't able 
to install it. So, I put it on the back burner.

> This means that

[…]

> In your case, it can be something simpler using just
> Mathematica or Maple (or whatever); but you still need
> to learn how to make TeX write to external files, and
> read back the results from other files.
>
>> Is there something readable on the subject? For instance, something 
>> that would help me read the awesome polynom.sty?
>
> It may take years of practice before that becomes readable.

Today is my 70th birthday.

> At some point you will have to read parts of The TeX Book,
> or other books about programming in TeX.

I thought so; which would you advise?

> Only then do you have any real chance of understanding what
> each line of such coding is actually doing.

I did gather that this was rather an extraordinary piece of code. What 
would you think of the two things I had thought of playing with:
\Evaluate{Polynomial in x}{some number}

and/or

\Expand{a}{b}{some degree} (i.e. binomial expansions)

> Best of luck,

I know I will need a lot of it.

Best regards
--schremmer
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