How to make the output of Maxima cleaner?

Question

I want to make use of Maxima as the backend to solve some computations used in my LaTeX input file. I did the following steps.

Step 1

Download and install Maxima.

Step 2

Create a batch file named cas.bat (for example) as follows.

rem cas.bat
echo off
set PATH=%PATH%;"C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxima-5.31.2\bin"
maxima --very-quiet -r %1 > solution.tex

Save the batch in the same directory in which your input file below exists. It is just for the sake of simplicity.

Step 3

Create the input file named main.tex (for example) as follows.

% main.tex
\documentclass[preview,border=12pt,12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\def\f(#1){(#1)^2-5*(#1)+6}


\begin{document} 

\section{Problem}
Evaluate $\f(x)$ for $x=\frac 1 2$.

\section{Solution}
\immediate\write18{cas "x: 1/2;tex(\f(x));"}

\input{solution}

\end{document}

Step 4

Compile the input file with pdflatex -shell-escape main and you will get a nice output as follows.

!

Step 5

Done.

Questions

Apparently the output of Maxima is as follows. I don't know how to make it cleaner.

solution.tex

                                       1
                                       -
                                       2
$${{15}\over{4}}$$
                                     false

Now, my question are

• how to remove such texts?
• how to obtain just \frac{15}{4} without $$...$$?

Answer 1

(1) To suppress output, terminate input expressions with dollar sign (i.e. $) instead of semicolon (i.e. ;).

(2) To get just the TeX-ified expression sans the environment delimiters (i.e. $$), call tex1 instead of tex. Note that tex1 returns a string, which you have to print yourself (while tex prints it for you).

Combining these ideas with the stuff you showed, I think your program could look like this:

"x: 1/2$ print(tex1(\f(x)))$"

I think you might find the Maxima mailing list helpful. I'm pretty sure there have been several attempts to create a system such as the one you describe. You can also look at the documentation.