What is a polynomial in x?

[Roberto Bagnara]

We have some doubts on the handling of polynomials under GiNaC.  The
question we need to be answered is: what is, for GiNaC, a polynomial
in a variable x?  That is, for which class of expressions are the
functions degree, ldegree, coeff, lcoeff, tcoeff...  guaranteed to
work?  If this class is not the class of all expressions, it would
be nice to have a function or method recognizing it so that
one can do things like

     if (is_a_polynomial(e, x)) {
       // Here it is safe to use degree(e, x), ...
     }

While we are trying to write code that depends only on the guarantees
GiNaC offer, we would like to take the occasion of improving GiNaC's
documentation (that is, if you answer nicely we will contribute a
couple of paragraph for the section of the manual dealing with
polynomials ;-)
All the best

       Tatiana Zolo
       Roberto Bagnara

-- 
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