chap1.txt

  
  1 Introduction
  
  
  1.1 Overview over this manual
  
  Chapter  1 is concerned with the technical details of installing and running
  this   package.  Chapter  2  answers  the  question  why  and  how  the  GAP
  functionality  concerning  a  sparse matrix type and gaussian algorithms was
  extended.  The  following  chapters  are  concerned with the workings of the
  sparse  matrix  type  (3)  and sparse Gaussian algorithms (4). Included is a
  documented  list  of the most important methods and functions needed to work
  with  sparse  matrices  and  the  algorithms  provided by the Gauss package.
  Anyone  interested  in  source  code  should just check out the files in the
  gap/pkg/Gauss/gap/ folder (--> Appendix A).
  
  
  1.2 Installation of the Gauss Package
  
  To  install  this package just extract the package's archive file to the GAP
  pkg/  directory.  The  Gauss package utilizes some C-code by Max Neunhoeffer
  that  has  to  be  compiled  before you can load Gauss. To compile the code,
  first  run  ./configure.  If  the  package  is  not  installed  in  the pkg/
  subdirectory  of  GAP's  root directory you will need to provide the correct
  path  to  the latter. This will create a makefile. Complete the installation
  of the package by running make. Recompiling the documentation is possible by
  the  command  make  doc  in  the  Gauss  directory,  but  this should not be
  necessary.
  
  By  default  the Gauss package is not automatically loaded by GAP when it is
  installed.  You  must load the package with LoadPackage("Gauss"); before its
  functions  become  available.  Please,  send  me  an  e-mail if you have any
  questions,  remarks,  suggestions, etc. concerning Gauss. Also, I would like
  to hear about applications of this package.
  Simon Goertzen