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