Re: What about miscellaneous?

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 15 April 2013 11:53, Juan Pablo Carbajal <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 6:43 PM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>> On 14 April 2013 12:07, Juan Pablo Carbajal <address@hidden> wrote:
>>
>>> As said before we have at least 3 packages that implement special
>>> functions.
>>
>> Please don't forget that "special functions" is a term of art.
>> Multinomial coefficients aren't special functions. While the term
>> "special functions" is loosely defined, it doesn't mean "everything
>> that doesn't fit anywhere else."
>
> Do not know exactly what meant, but orthonormal polynomials do not go
> into miscellaneous for sure, and since they are named (Bessel,
> Legendre, Laguerre, etc) they could be considered special functions.
> That is were I will put them. This is also consistent with the specfun
> package in the core of Octave.

Special functions are interesting meromorphic functions, usually
studied in the complex plane. They arise in many different contexts,
frequently from differential equations or physical considerations,
sometimes from number theory. The families of orthogonal polynomials
are usually classified as special functions. Wikipedia has a good
list:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_special_functions_and_eponyms

My point here is that there is a more or less established list of
special functions, and I don't think Octave should be adding to this
list without respecting the mathematical tradition of what sorts of
functions are here.

- Jordi G. H.