Some Useful Tips for Using Maple

Here are some helpful hints that might make your life a little easier when you're using Maple:

To unassign a variable, use a command in of the form of x:='x';
To refer to the previous result, use ditto marks ( " ). For example, " refers to the most recent result, "" refers to the next to last result, and """ refers to the one before that. Of course, if you assign a name to a result, it is very simple to refer to it again.
To refer to an item in a list, use the notation [k], where k picks out the kth item in a list. For example, "[2]; refers to the second item in the most recent result.
To refer to the constant 3.14159..., use the notation Pi (note the capital P.)
Use the assign function to set solution values found by solve to the variables. For example,

eqns := {x + y = 1, b * x - 1/3 * y = c}:
vars := {x, y}:
sols := solve(eqns, vars);

             {      b a - c      3 c + a }
     sols := {y = 3 -------, x = ------- }
             {      3 b + 1      3 b + 1 }

assign(sols);
x, y;

       b a - c  3 c + a
     3 -------, -------
       3 b + 1  3 b + 1

Use the map function to apply a procedure to each operand of an expression. For example,

with(linalg):
A:=array((1..2,1..2),[[cos(x)^2,0],[0,sin(x)^2]]);

                                [       2          ]
                                [ cos(x)      0    ]
                           A := [                  ]
                                [                2 ]
                                [    0     sin(x)  ]

B:=array((1..2,1..2),[[sin(x)^2,0],[0,cos(x)^2]]);

                                [       2          ]
                                [ sin(x)      0    ]
                           B := [                  ]
                                [                2 ]
                                [    0     cos(x)  ]

C:=add(A,B);

                      [       2         2                    ]
                      [ cos(x)  + sin(x)           0         ]
                 C := [                                      ]
                      [                          2         2 ]
                      [         0          cos(x)  + sin(x)  ]

map(simplify,C);

                                    [ 1  0 ]
                                    [      ]
                                    [ 0  1 ]

Follow these steps to change the colors of the Maple window.

Add the following lines to your .bashrc file:

   XAPPLRESDIR=$HOME/app-defaults/
   export XAPPLRESDIR

Source your .bashrc file by entering

        source .bashrc

Create a directory called app-defaults in your home directory.
Create a file called MapleV in the app-defaults directory, and include the following lines:

   
        MapleV*background:  name_of_the_color
        MapleV*foreground:  name_of_the_color
        MapleV*promptcolor:  name_of_the_color
        MapleV*canvas.background:  name_of_the_color
        MapleV*canvas.foreground:  name_of_the_color

The first line changes the background where the different buttons are.
The second line changes the color of the text on these buttons.
The third line changes the color of the maple prompt.
The fourth line changes the background color where the commands are written.
The last line changes the foreground color where the command are written.

Alternatively, you could add the above lines to your .Xdefaults file.

You can now start up Maple.

If you have saved a plot using Maple, and get only the header when you try to print the plot, a possible cause is that the title of your plot contains parentheses. To solve this problem, simply remove the parentheses from the plot title.
If you have problems including a Maple produced PostScript file in a LaTeX document, you may need to specify the correct bounding box and rotate the plot.

In the example below, we use the psfig command to include a PostScript file called mapleplot.ps. The width of the plot will be 5 inches, and it will be rotated by 270 degrees to make appear in portrait orientation. It will also be centered horizontally on the page.

 \par \centerline{
 \psfig{figure=mapleplot.ps,bbllx=56pt,bblly=65pt,bburx=556pt,
        bbury=726pt,width=5in,angle=270}
 } \par

Some Useful Tips for Using Maple

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