Zeilberger

Short Description

Zeilberger is an implementatian for the free and open source Maxima computer algebra system of Gosper's and Zeilberger's algorithm for proving and finding indefinite and definite hypergeometric summation identities. The package has been developed by Fabrizio Caruso, a former Ph.D. student of the RISC Combinatorics group.

A Note on Encoded Files

This package contains one or more Mathematica input files which are encoded. Those files cannot be read or modified directly as plain text, but can be loaded into Mathematica just like any normal input file (i.e., with <<"file" or Get["file"]). There is no need (and also no way) to decode them by using additional software or a special key.

If loading an encoded file causes a syntax error, open it with a text editor and remove any blank lines at the beginning (for some reason your Mac could have inserted them silently...).

The Package

Note: From version 5.9.3 on, the package is part of the standard Maxima libraries. No extra download is necessary. In order to use it, just start Maxima and type

  load("Zeilberger/zeilberger");

For using the package in earlier versions of Maximas, or for access to the original source code, you may download the package files of version 3.0 via the following link.

• Zeilberger.tar.gz

For a short description of the package and a manual, see the readme file.

Please report any bugs or other suggestions to caruso@dm.unipi.it.

Note: The package has not been tested on Maxima versions below 5.2.

Literature

Information on the installation and use of the package (together with its theoretical background) can be found in the paper

F. Caruso, A Macsyma Implementation of Zeilberger's Fast Algorithm, RISC-Linz Report Series n. 99-21, J. Kepler University, Linz, 1999. [pdf]

Versions and Bugs

The current version of the package is 2.0 last updated on March 15, 2004. Please report any bugs and comments to Fabrizio Caruso.