Introduction

What is Maple?

Maple is a computer program for people doing mathematics. Using Maple to do your calculations should make the work more interesting, allow you to focus more on the concepts, and help you to avoid mistakes in calculation.

How to use this tutorial

This document is intended to get you started, and show you how to learn more. It is intended to be used while sitting at a terminal running Maple in a windowed environment, by entering the commands and thinking about the output.

To use any software effectively, some knowledge of the computer's operating system is required. This document will assume that you are already familiar with the rudiments of windows -- things like point, click and drag, how to use menus, and the standard way to open and close files. Maple is essentially the same on Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, and the X windows system, but there are minor differences in their interface.

This tutorial assumes that you are running Maple in one of the previously listed environments. If you are using a character-based terminal, for example in a telnet session, the Maple commands will be the same although the interface is different (no mouse, no menus, and typewriter graphics). If you are using Maple over telnet, ssh, or through any other terminal, you may wish to read Using Math Software under UNIX  after you are done with this tutorial.

In order to be more broadly understood, we don't include some things which require a lot of mathematical knowledge, for example linear algebra. Subject oriented guides are also available -see our By Subject page.

We'll be using some standard conventions throughout this document.

Example Explanation
File -> Open Choose the file menu, and select Open.
a := 5;
 Input to be typed at the Maple prompt.
a := 5
 Output from Maple.
tip arrow An important tip.

Where to find Maple

Maple is available for many different kinds of computers at Indiana University Bloomington.

  • All Windows and Macintosh Student Technology Centers.
  • Ships, Nations, and DaVinci UNIX clusters
  • Several of the large timesharing systems - see the availability chart for details.

How to start and exit Maple

To start maple:

  • On Windows 2000 computers, go to Start Menu -> Programs -> Statistics and Math -> Maple 7 -> Maple 7
  • On Macintosh computers, go to Apple Menu -> Statistics and Math -> Maple 7.
  • On UNIX workstations, the X windows version is invoked by the command xmaple &.

To exit Maple in a windowed environment choose File -> Exit. To exit from a terminal session type quit;.