quo, rem, quorem -> poly divide

[DrD]

No, partfrac() isn't the point here. Strictly, "/" is the topic. At the command line, poly1 / poly2 (entered in that way), does not compute.

quo(poly1,poly2) returns the quotient. rem(poly1,poly2) returns the remainder. quotrem(poly1,poly2) returns both. The important detail, is the visual ability to see the calculated result, not that it will be used for further processing.

If to get the result of 13/7, at the command line you had to use quo(13/7), rem(13/7), or quorem(13/7), a beginner might be better off spending that time trying to learn how to "insert drill bits in a drill."

13/7 [Enter] => 13/7
13/7 [Shift] [Enter] => 1.8 ...

(x^4-3*x^2-3*x-2)/(x^3-x^2-2*x) [Enter]=> (x^4-3*x^2-3*x-2)/(x^3-x^2-2*x)
[Shift] [Enter] Doesn't return the quotient plus remainder, either.

That's the state of things, and all I was wondering about.
It's kind of similar to the question about how to resolve fractional powers into radical representation. Some things just aren't supported, and that's the way it is.

This is somewhat like I was thinking, only with the "/" directly on the command line as discussed above. The Maxima manual has this command detail:

Function: divide (p_1, p_2, x_1, …, x_n)
computes the quotient and remainder of the polynomial p_1 divided by the polynomial p_2, in a main polynomial variable, x_n. The other variables are as in the ratvars function. The result is a list whose first element is the quotient and whose second element is the remainder.
Examples:
(%i1) divide (x + y, x - y, x);
(%o1) [1, 2 y]
(%i2) divide (x + y, x - y);
(%o2) [- 1, 2 x]

Note that y is the main variable in the second example.