A curve f is called elliptic if the genus is 1. An algebraic function field  is isomorphic to the field  where f0 is of the form y0^2 + square-free polynomial in x0 of degree 3 if and only if the curve is elliptic.

For a hyperelliptic curve with genus g there exists a similar normal form:  a squarefree polynomial in x0 of degree  or .

This procedure computes such normal form f0. It also gives an isomorphism from  to  by giving the images of x0 and y0. The inverse isomorphism will also be computed, unless the option `no inverse` is used.

The output is a list of 5 items:

The curve f0

The image of x0 under this isomorphism

The image of y0 under this isomorphism

The image of x under the inverse isomorphism

The image of y under the inverse isomorphism

For a description of the method in the elliptic case see M. van Hoeij, "An algorithm for computing the Weierstrass normal form", ISSAC'95 Proceedings, p. 90-95 (1995). For the hyperelliptic case, see: http://arXiv.org/abs/math.AG/0203130

The analogue of this procedure for curves of genus zero is parametrization.

A regular point  on the curve can be specified as a 6th argument. In some cases this can speed up the computation. In the genus 1 case the option Weierstrass results in a Weierstrass normal form, i.e. .

If the curve is not elliptic (which can be verified by computing the genus) nor hyperelliptic (which can be verified with is_hyperelliptic then an error message will be given. If the curve is reducible, which can be checked with evala(AFactor(f)), then the normal form does not exist and Weierstrassform will fail.