/usr/share/doc/maxima-doc/tips/ui-tips.html

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<h3>Maxima user interface tips</h3>
<div class="contentbox2">
  <h4>describe shortcut</h4>
<p>The describe command, e.g.,
    describe(integrate);
can be shortened to "? ", i.e.,
    ? integrate</p>
<p>
Unfortunately, this shortcut contains two exceptions to Maxima's usual
input rules:

(a) Unlike practically every other input line in Maxima, the
line does not require a semi-colon or dollar sign to signify the end
of the entry.

(b) The space is significant; "?integrate" has a
separate meaning from "? integrate"; the former calls the lisp
function "integrate".
</p>
</div>

<div class="contentbox2">
  <h4>:lisp shortcut</h4>
  <p>Individual lisp commands may be entered by starting the
       input line with ":lisp"
       Ordinarily, one enters lisp mode with to_lisp(): 
<pre>
(%i1) to_lisp();
Type (to-maxima) to restart

MAXIMA> (format t "hello from lisp~%")
hello from lisp
NIL
MAXIMA> (setf foo 1)
;
Warning:  Declaring FOO special.
1
MAXIMA> (to-maxima)
Returning to Maxima
(%o1)                                TRUE
(%i2)

</pre>
The above example is equivalent to
<pre>
(%i1) :lisp (format t "hello from lisp~%")
hello from lisp
NIL
(%i1) :lisp (setf foo 1)
Warning:  Declaring FOO special.

1
(%i1)
</pre>
Note that :lisp lines to not need to end with semi-colons or dollar
signs.
</div>

<div class="contentbox2">
<h4>Input and output labels
</h4>
<p>Before Maxima 5.9.1, the input and output labels were C1, C2,
       etc. and D1, D2, etc., respectively. Starting with 5.9.1, the C
       and D characters have been changed to %i and %o. The prompts
       are customizable via the inchar and outchar variables.
</p>
<p>
For example, the pre-5.9.1 behavior can be restored via
<pre>
    inchar:C; outchar:D;
</pre>
Even though the variable names imply that they should evaluate to a
single character, the prompts may have arbitrary lengths. For example,
<pre>
    inchar:long_input_label; outchar:long_output_label;
</pre>
are also legal values.        
</p>
</div>

<div class="contentbox2">
<h4>Re-enabling the lisp debugger in Maxima
</h4>
<p>
As of Maxima 5.9.1, lisp errors will cause the user to be dumped into
the lisp debugger. The lisp debugger can be re-enabled by setting the
*debugger-hook* variable in lisp to nil, i.e.,
<pre>
    (setf *debugger-hook* nil)
</pre>
To restore maxima's default behavior, set *debugger-hook* to point to
the function maxima-lisp-debugger, i.e.,
<pre>
    (setf *debugger-hook* #'maxima-lisp-debugger)
</pre>
</p>
</div>

<div class="contentbox2">
<h4>Environment variables
</h4>
<p>
Maxima uses several environment
variables. The following description comes from the man page:
</p>
<pre>
MAXIMA_USERDIR
       Points  to  a  directory  for user customization files. Maxima's
       default search  paths  include  MAXIMA_USERDIR.  Default  value:
       $HOME/.maxima.

MAXIMA_PREFIX
       Maxima  looks for its input files in the directory configured at
       compile time, /home/amundson/opt/maxima. Maxima can be relocated
       to  a different directory as long as the maxima script maintains
       the same relative position with  respect  to  the  Maxima  input
       files.  If, for some reason, the maxima script needs to be relo-
       cated independently, MAXIMA_PREFIX needs to be set to  point  to
       the top of the tree holding the input files.

MAXIMA_DIRECTORY
       MAXIMA_DIRECTORY  is equivalent to MAXIMA_PREFIX. It is included
       only for backward compatibility with older versions of Maxima.
</pre>
<p>Maxima uses  several  other  environment  variables  for  communication
between  the maxima script and the lisp image. All such variables start
with MAXIMA_. They should not need to be modified by the user.
</p>
</div>

<div class="contentbox2">
<h4>Customization files
</h4>
<p> Maxima checks for the presence of the
       files maxima-init.lisp and maxima-init.mac in the search path
       and loads them if available. The most logical place to put
       these files is in MAXIMA_USERDIR, as defined above.
</p>
<p>An example maxima-init.lisp that re-enables the lisp debugger:
<pre>
(setf *debugger-hook* nil)
(format t "*** My personal maxima-init.lisp has been loaded ***~%")
</pre>
</p>
<p>An example maxima-init.mac that enables gnuplot's pm3d mode:
<pre>
set_plot_option([gnuplot_pm3d,true]);
print("*** My very own personal maxima-init.mac has been loaded. ***");
</pre>
</p>
<p>
The print/format statements are useful for debugging. They can be
removed once the init files are established to be working.
</p>
</div>

<div class="contentbox2">
<h4>Customizing the display of equations
</h4>
<p>The maxima variables
       display2d, stardisp and linel allow for customization of the
       display of equations.
</p>
<p>display2d is a boolean controlling the formatting of displayed
equations:
<pre>
(%i1) display2d;

(%o1)                                TRUE
(%i2) x/(y^2+z^2);

                                       x
(%o2)                               -------
                                     2    2
                                    z  + y
(%i3) display2d:false;

(%o3) FALSE
(%i4) x/(y^2+z^2);

(%o4) x/(z^2+y^2)
</pre>
</p>

<p>stardisp controls whether spaces or *'s are used to represent
multiplication:  
<pre>
(%i1) stardisp;

(%o1)                                FALSE
(%i2) a*b*c;

(%o2)                                a b c
(%i3) stardisp:true;

(%o3)                                TRUE
(%i4) a*b*c;

(%o4)                                a*b*c
</pre>
</p>
<p>linel controls the number of characters per line:
<pre>
(%i1) linel;

(%o1)                                 79
(%i2) ratexpand((x+y+z)^3);

       3        2        2      2                  2      3        2      2
(%o2) z  + 3 y z  + 3 x z  + 3 y  z + 6 x y z + 3 x  z + y  + 3 x y  + 3 x  y

                                                                              3
                                                                           + x
(%i3) linel:40;

(%o3)              40
(%i4) ratexpand((x+y+z)^3);

       3        2        2      2
(%o4) z  + 3 y z  + 3 x z  + 3 y  z

                2      3        2
 + 6 x y z + 3 x  z + y  + 3 x y

      2      3
 + 3 x  y + x
</pre>
</p>
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maxima-doc 5.32.1-1 / usr / share / doc / maxima-doc / tips / ui-tips.html
