Quote needed?
In the DESOLVE example above, if you tell maxima that y depends on x, then you do not need to quote the diff operator. The quote is needed when depends(y,x) is not typed. Answer: True. In the ODE example, you could omit the Depends and quote the diff, or include the Depends and either quote the diff or not. The quote is stylistic, emphasizing that you’re talking *about* the differential rather than actually carrying out the differentiation. Of course, the discussion about desolve and ode2 needs to be put in a broader context of “how to solve differential equations”. Here, it is just contrasting desolve’s approach to dependency (use explicit functions like f(x)) vs. ode2’s (declare that y depends on x or simply quote the differentials).
