Use parens for grouping exponents in plain format.

[blipvert]

trafficstars

Maxima interprets braced expressions as sets, and does not simplify exponents in that form.

[kpeeters]

Ok, thanks ;-) The only reason I referred you to v2 is that my time is very limited at the moment and I really want to get v2 ready for public consumption, instead of patching v1. But I'll merge this one into v1.

[blipvert]

Thank you! I am certainly looking forward to v2.