§ 18.C: Helpful Hints for Using Maple
Maple is a powerful tool that can save you time and let you
do what would otherwise be impossible. First learning Maple may
seem like a powerful waste of time until you accept its syntax. If you
get stuck or frustrated you might try the following:
- Check your spelling and capitalization A slight change will
completely change the meaning.
- Look for missing semi-colon A command without punctuation will
not be executed.
- Look for missing colon To define something, you need ":="
not "=".
- Do you have the correct spelling/caplitalization for your constants?
Maple treats "pi" as just another
variable. "Pi" on the other hand is a recognized
constant.
- Start worksheets with restart; and execute again at the
top of the worksheet Your modifications may be confusing Maple.
- Reload your worksheet and execute your commands again. Sometimes
Maple is very confused.
- Check that you have the number of variables Maple is expecting.
- Have someone else look over your work.
- Take a break and try something else, but don't give up.
- Be considerate of other users. Each Maple window uses
memory, and especially graphs. Minimize the number of windows you keep
open. (To close a window, move your cursor the the upper left corner, click
on "File" and select "Exit".) Some complex Maple
calculations take a lot of system time to run. If your calculation takes
a lot of time there is little you can do. However, if it seems that your
calulation is simple should be finshed already, you can click on the "Interrupt"
button to stop the calculation.
Comments and questions to CP-unix@physics.orst.edu.
Running C Programs 
18: Maple 
Using xmaple 