MAPLE, the algebra manipulation and grapghic visualization tool used in
this course has been adopted by hundreds of colleges and universities
and is very widely available. "MAPLE central" is the MAPLEsoft website,
http://www.maplesoft.com where you
can purchase a copy of MAPLE, find example worksheets, and look for the
answer to your favorite MAPLE trivia questions. Two things to keep in
mind if you need to obtain a copy of MAPLE -- at least in the past
MAPLE has not objected to academics purchsing the student edition for
personal use, and MAPLE will provide a free copy of its software to
Professor's developing course materials in a course where MAPLE is
required.
Online Collections of MAPLE Worksheets
MAPLE Worksheets from the UFP Program
Juan Tolosa's Top 10 MAPLE Tips
- Always start a new worksheet, or
a new chapter, with restart: . This
make the sheet easier to re-execute independent of past definitions.
- When you find a particularly
good way to do something make a note of it. Include an
explanation, and save it in a special folder ("my MAPLE folder").
Otherwise, after a while you will forget how it was done, and where it
was.
- To break your input into several
lines without executing it, use <Shift> <Enter>.
This is particularly useful to neatly arrange long inputs, and to carry
out "DO" loops. To insert a page break (for printing) after a region,
highlight the left vertical bar of a Maple line and type <Ctrl>
<Enter> .
- Learn to insert text and
execution groups at will. When you highlight the left vertical bar
of a Maple line and you press the Text key on the menu ("T" key), Maple
inserts a text line right before the line you highlighted. However, if
you press the Command key("[>" key), Maple will insert a command line
right after the highlighted line. To insert a Maple command before the
line, press <Ctrl> M after highlighting the left bar.
- Use MAPLE online help .
Say, to learn about the "plot" command, type ?plot; .The
most useful thing about the information you get is the examples, which
are at the end of the help page. You can copy them, paste them into your
document, and carry out approppriate modifications. You can also go to
the "help" menu and search the Glossary, or search by Topic, or by Text.
The "help" menu even has a new user's tour.
- For animations involving several
objects, e.g. plots, points, and
lines, use "display" with the option "insequence=true". To learn
more about this wonderful command, see examples in the help menu using ?display;.
- Use the web. It is an
excellent source of MAPLE worksheets that you can shamelessly
copy. The MAPLE website is particularly useful, http://www.maplesoft.com. (Try the
"Applications Center".)
- Use the "indent" and the
"unindent" commands to divide a long worksheet into sections and subsections.
This is particularly useful for presentations.
- Before saving a document, go to
the Edit menu and select Remove Output ->
From Worksheet. You will get a file that is a lot smaller.
Outputs, especially graphs, use up a lot of memory. The Edit menu also
has the Execute
option, which allows you to execute a whole bunch of commands at once
(highlight them prior to choosing Execute), or
even the whole worksheet.
- Backup your work often.
If you have performed a lot of operations and graphs, use restart or remove output from
worksheet every now and then, or even save your work, quit, and
restart Maple, to avoid nasty crashes.