Re: What about miscellaneous?

[Juan Pablo Carbajal]

On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 2:37 AM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
<address@hidden> wrote:
> 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.

Hi Jordi,

What are you trying to say in relation to the miscellaneous package?
My plan is to collect the functions on orthogonal polynomials and and
put them in the secfun package. Do you have an objection to that?
Note that the specfun package in core already is doing this.