CoCoA » CoCoALib

/**/ K ::= QQ[a,b];   R := NewFractionField(K);   Use R[x];
/**/ x^2 - (1/(a))*x + 1;

prints as

x^2 +(-1/a)*x +1

Does this look bad? Some considerations:

• The original rule for writing polynomials was:
  "when the coefficient ring is not ZZ or QQ the coefficients are all printed within brackets", e.g.
  

  (1)*x^2 +(-1/a)*x +(1)
  

• Then I had to agree that so many "(1)*" and "(-1)*" looked quite heavy and I modified it:
  "when coefficients-fractions are not in QQ they are printed within brackets", e.g.
  

  a*x^2 +(-2/a)*x -3/5
  

I'm undecided whether "x^2 -(1/a)*x +1" is really better than "x^2 +(-1/a)*x +1" (especially considering how tedious it is to describe and implement this case...)

Any opinion? Examples to be considered?