Maple V by Example

The Absolute Essentials

Getting Help
Layout of Command Window
Syntax Essnetials
Modifying Lines in Maple
Maple Packages

Getting Help

On all recent implementations of Maple, there is the Help menu. Unlike many other applications, the Maple Help files are in fact helpful. In particular most help files provide numerous examples which clarify the text. On many systems, pressing the F1 has the same effect as selecting the Help menu.

When unsure of how to use a specific command, you can highlight the command with the mouse and then clicking on F1 or going to the Help menu (Help on " " selection) will automatically open up the help page for that specific command.

Layout of Command Window

The command window also the user to type mathematical commands or text, define sections and subsections, and view plot outputs, all in the same window. One controls functionality related to such high level formatting concerns with the commands in the Insert menu. A new Maple document always begins by displaying an "execution group" which looks like [< . The bracket to the left indicates the bounds of a group and when < precedes a line, Maple with execute anything that follows. You can change a group from Text Input to Maple Input and vice versa by selecting the corresponding options from the Insert menu.

As you get more familiar with Maple, experiment with some of the other commands under the Insert menu. Also, learn to change the font of your text input with commands under the Format menu. Unless otherwise stated, from now on, all discussion deals with examples of Maple Input.

Syntax Essentials

Syntax discussions are of course only relevant in the context of Maple Input. The first important punctuation that you need to know are the following:

Punct.	Explanation	Example
;	All commands end with ";" or ":". If a command ends with a semicolon, the output of that command is displayed.	`sqrt(3.1);` Calculates the square root of 3.1 and displays it.
;	All commands end with ";" or ":". If a command ends with a semicolon, the output of that command is displayed.	`a:=3+9:` Calculates 3 plus 9 and assigns it to the variable `a`. The process is not displayed.
?	Using the question mark is another way of accessing the help files.	`?plot` Opens the help file related to the `plot` command. (This is the standard mechanism for plotting two dimensional graphs.
%	This is the ditto operator. In older releases, the ditto operator is %.	`sqrt(3.1): %+2;` Calculates the square root of 3.1 but doesn't show it. Then it adds 2 (to sqrt(3.1)) and displays this.

Note that Maple is case sensitive so that "X" and "x" are different symbols, as are "Pi" and "pi". (Maple use "Pi" with a capital "P" for the mathematical pi.)

Modifying Lines in Maple

If a user modifies a certain parameter value or some object, Maple does not re-evaluate all other command lines which depend on this modified value. To make the modification carry through to other parts of the Maple file, you must place the cursor on the appropriate Maple input line and press Enter. This performs the re-evaluation.

Note: This behavior of Maple must be taken into account when opening a pre-existing Maple file. None of the command lines are in Maple's active memory. In order to activate any line, you must be in the command line and press Enter.

Maple Packages

Like many mathematical interpreters, Maple only lodes the libraries of commands which are very common. Thus Maple has an extensive list of packages which contain many useful procedures and functions depending on the application. To obtain more detailed information about each package, enter with(plots);