Dr. Sarah's
Maple Tips
Access Questions and Answers
- WHERE DO I ACCESS MAPLE? In labs on campus.
If you don't have time to work in the labs on campus,
you may wish to purchase a copy of Maple - a link will be posted on the
ASULearn forum/bulletin board so that you can obtain a reduced price.
Maple Tips
Execute The First Line
> with(LinearAlgebra): with(plots):
Save Often Computers do sometimes crash and lose your
work. In order to save your work,
File/Save brings up a browser. You should always save your file
as Name.mw The .mw tells Maple that
the file is a Maple worksheet.
Then find a place to save the file.
Before e-mailing your document, first use Edit/Remove Output/From Worksheet
to remove the output, and then re-save - it makes it much easier for
other versions of Maple to handle.
You can always execute the commands again later.
Printing Your Work If you want to print your work from a computer that doesn't have Maple, you can copy and
paste it into a Word document, commands, pictures and all.
Entering Maple Commands
To enter commands, type in commands at the > prompt, then hit the
return or enter key.
If you want a new > prompt, use Insert/Execution Group/ and release
on Before or After the Cursor, as desired.
Semicolons and Colons
All commands in Maple Input must end in either a semicolon (;)
-- shows output -- or a colon (:) -- suppresses output. 2D input doesn't need this.
Entering Text Explanations
Use Insert/Text in order to turn a > Maple code region into a
text region.
If you want a new > prompt, use Insert/Execution Group/ and release
on Before or After the Cursor, as desired. Then use Insert/Text.
Copy and Paste
A quick way to enter a long Maple command is to copy a similar command
from elsewhere, paste it into a Maple input > region,
and edit it. You can also copy output from a Maple command (even a plot)
and paste it into a text region.
Colon-Equals A common oversight is omitting the colon (:)
before the equal sign in a Maple statement. Most Maple statements have
the form Name:=Expression, which tells Maple to calculate the value
of the Expression and assign the result of the calculation to the Name.
However, in an equation that you just want Maple to solve, you use
the equal sign without the colon.
Maple's Forgetfulness
When you open a worksheet that contains output, Maple does not actually
know the values of any of the variables in the output regions,
even though it may look like the values have been assigned to some
variables. Maple "forgets" the values assigned in a worksheet as
soon as you exit Maple or execute a restart command.
So, if you want Maple to know the values of these variables, you have to
execute the commands in the worksheet again.
Maple's Lack of Forgetfulness and restart:
Unless you exit Maple or execute a restart command, Maple will
retain these values. So it's a good idea not to use the same variable
names repeatedly. If you find that you are getting strange responses
to Maple commands, the cause may be exactly this unwise repeat of
variable names. The cure is to execute the restart and with
commands at the top of the module; then re-execute all the
commands you need to get your answer. Make sure that you execute commands
in the proper order. Maple pays no attention to the order in which
a command appears - it only pays attention to the order in which it is
executed.
Producing Nicely Formatted Formulas in Text Regions
You can create mathematical formulas in text regions that look as good
as the mathematical formulas in Maple's output. In a text region,
type the formula just as you would if it were Maple input.
Then highlight the formula, and use Format/Convert To/Standard Math.