A Guide to Maple

This "hands-on" book is for people who are interested in immediately putting Maple to work. The reader is provided with a compact, fast and surveyable guide that introduces them to the extensive capabilities of the software. The book is sufficient for standard use of Maple and will provide techniques for extending Maple for more specialized work. The author discusses the reliability of results systematically and presents ways of testing questionable results. The book allows a reader to become a user almost immediately and helps him/her to grow gradually to a broader and more proficient use. As a consequence, some subjects are dealt with in an introductory way early in the book, with references to a more detailed discussion later on.

1 Basic elements in the use of Maple.- 2 Numbers and algebraic operators.- 3 Names and evaluation 1: mathematical variables.- 4 Elementary calculus.- 5 Names and evaluation 2: applying procedures.- 6 Creating and using mathematical functions.- 7 Graphics.- 8 Taylor or Laurent expansion and limits.- 9 Numerical calculations with Maple.- 10 Manipulating several objects at once.- 11 Substitution and subexpressions.- 12 Manipulating and converting numbers.- 13 Polynomials and rational expressions.- 14 Polynomial equations and factoring polynomials.- 15 Manipulating algebraic expressions.- 16 Solving equations and inequalities in general.- 17 Solving differential equations.- 18 Vectors and matrices.- Appendix A Types, properties, and domains.- A.1 Basic types.- More types.- Selection on type.- Properties, the assume facility.- Derived properties.- Asking for the assumed properties.- Adding properties.- Combining properties.- Properties and assigning.- Properties and formal parameters.- Domains, the Domains package.- Appendix B Names and evaluation 3: some special features.- Changing names, alias.- Finding names used.- Indexed names.- Quotes with table, arrays, vectors, and matrices.- Recovering lost procedures.- Exceptions to the rule of automatic full evaluation.- Appendix C The user interface for text-only versions.- Starting, interrupting, and quitting Maple.- Editing commands.- Pictures.- Maple system messages.- Saving a session and its results.- Appendix D Procedures remembering previous results.- Remember tables of procedures.- Clearing (parts of) the remember table.- An example of side effects of the remember table: infolevel.- Appendix E Control structures.- Procedures.- Searching for causes of odd behavior with trace or printlevel.- Using if ... fi for choices.- Recursion.- Using do od for repeating actions.- An example: checking the results of solve by substituting.- Error messages and warnings.- Catchword index.