Maxima CAS : distributing exponential terms while factoring
In maxima, I have an expression that is simplified to an expression similar to the form of:
tmp : c * d * (exp(a*t) - exp(b*t)) * exp(-a*t-b*t);
A typical simplification by hand would be to distribute the exponential term while leaving the $c$ and $d$ factored. However, I can't seem to coerce maxima to produce this form of the expression.
distrib(tmp) or expand(tmp) produces $c d e^{-b t} - c d e^{-a t}$
factor(tmp) produces: $-c d (e^{b t} - e^{a t}) e^{-b t - a t}$
factor(distrib(tmp)) produces the same expression as factor alone $-c d (e^{b t} - e^{a t}) e^{-b t - a t}$
Is there a way to coerce maxima into simplifying tmp into the desired form of $c d (e^{-b t} - e^{-a t})$ ? I realize the equivalence is trivial to keep track of in this case, but this pattern is often useful within more complex expressions as well.