[GAP Forum] GAP www items

[David Joyner]

Hello all:

As Joachim Neubeuser said in an earlier email, I will
try to replace him as GAP "webmaster". As I told Joachim,
if I can do 1/2 as good a job as he, I will be satisfied.
"Webmaster" is a misnomer - GAP's "editor-in-chief"
is the chair of the GAP Council, Edmund Robertson;
Angela Miguel and Bjoern Assmann are in charge of
bibliography and packages, resp.; I just add minor content
(like an FAQ) or try to handle (with Joachim and Max's
help) the technical aspects of putting a package description
in the right place. Still, feel free to contact me
(wdjoyner at gmail.com) if you spot a GAP www problem and I'll
do what I can.

By way of news, here are some recent additions to the GAP
website and other miscellaneous tidbits:

1. There are several new and updated packages:
   kan, rwca, idrel, gpd, hap, guava, for example.
   http://www.gap-system.org/Packages/packages.html#deppkg

2. A. Cohen's "grobner" package and other additions to website.
   http://www.gap-system.org/Packages/undep.html

3. GAP now has two graphical interfacess.
   * One is ggap, announced by Yevgen.
     http://mail.gap-system.org/pipermail/forum/2006/001520.html
   * The other uses the "SAGE notebook", which has a GAP
     version. (SAGE is a computer algebra system whic includes GAP.)
     Here's how to install and use the GAP notebook.
     a. Go to
      http://sage.scipy.org/
     or
      http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/
     and download SAGE. installation instructions are in
      http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/doc/html/inst/inst.html
     or
      http://sage.scipy.org/sage/documentation.html ,
     if you get stuck (or just email me).
     b. start sage and then type
       sage: notebook(open_viewer=True,system="gap")
     This works in windows, linux and on a mac but you must have
     the firefox browser installed. It provides a Mathematica-type
     interface, though emacs key bindings are possible.
     c. Type any legal commands (or block of commands) in
     the input box (enter for carriage return "shift enter"
     to execute).
     There is a help link or you can read the tutorial at
      http://sage.scipy.org/sage/doc/html/ref/node87.html
     or
      http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/doc/html/ref/node87.html
     d. Have fun!

    I haven't put a link to ggap or the SAGE GAP gui
    on the website yet.

4. In the past few months, Angie Miguel has posted to
    http://www.gap-system.org/Doc/Bib/gap-published.html
   about 60 bibiliographical items related to GAP. The (growing)
   year-by-year statistics at
    http://www.gap-system.org/Doc/Bib/statistics.html

5. New items were added to the FAQ
   http://www.gap-system.org/Faq/faq.html
   based on some of the Forum responses to Support questions.
   This was suggested by Joachim Neubeuser, though Alexander
   Hulpke provided the details
http://www.gap-system.org/Faq/Complaints/complaints3.html
   If you have any other suggestions, please let me know.

A thanks from me to Joachim and Max for being so extremely
helpful and patient while I "learn the ropes".

- David Joyner,
  wdjoyner at gmail.com