Return to gp.1 CVS log

Up to [local] / OpenXM_contrib / pari-2.2 / doc

Initial revision

.TH GP 1 "28 August 2001"
.SH NAME
gp \- PARI calculator
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B gp
.RB [ -emacs ]
.RB [ -f ]
.RB [ -test ]
.RB [ -q ]
.RB [ -s
.IR stacksize ]
.RB [ -p
.IR primelimit ]

.SH DESCRIPTION
Invokes the PARI-GP calculator. GP is an advanced programmable calculator,
which computes symbolically as long as possible, numerically where needed,
and contains a wealth of number-theoretic functions (elliptic curves, class
field theory...). Its basic data types are
.TP
numbers
integers, real numbers, exact rational numbers, algebraic numbers,
.BR p "-adic numbers,"
complex numbers,
.TP
modular integers
integers modulo
.BR n ,
.TP
polynomials
and rational functions,
.TP
power series,
.TP
binary quadratic forms,
.TP
matrices, vectors,
and lists,
.TP
character strings,
.PP
and recursive combinations of these.

.SH OPTIONS
A numeric argument to the following options can be followed by a 
.B k
or a
.B M
at the user's convenience. In that case the argument is multiplied by 1000
or 1000000 respectively. The following command line options are available:
.TP
.B \-emacs
GP can be run in an
.I Emacs
shell (see GP User's manual for details). This flag is then required for
smooth interaction with the relevant
.I Emacs
package (pari.el). It is set automatically by the pari.el package, and will
produce nice display oddities if you set it outside of an
.I Emacs
session.
.TP
.B \-f
Fast start (or factory settings). Do not read
.B .gprc
(see below) upon startup.
.TP
.B \-q
Quiet mode. Don't print headers or history numbers, don't say goodbye.
.TP
.BI \-p " primelimit"
Upon startup, GP computes a table of small primes used in most
number-theoretic applications. If
.I primelimit
is set here, include primes up to that bound instead of the default.
Unreasonably high values will considerably increase startup time. Exceedingly
small values will cause some number-theoretic functions to fail with the
message "not enough precomputed primes".
.TP
.BI \-s " stacksize"
Size of GP internal stack allocated on startup. When GP runs out of space, it
interrupts the current computation and raises a 
.BI "stack overflow"
exception. If this occurs frequently (especially if you make heavy use
of linear algebra), start with a bigger stack. The stack size can also be
increased from within GP, using
.B default(parisize, ...)
; it may be convenient to set 
.B stacksize
from your 
.B .gprc
Note that computations with a 
.B smaller
stack may be more efficient due to better data locality. Sensible
computations should need less than 20MB.

.TP
.B \-test
run GP in test mode: suppress printing of history numbers and wrap long
output lines (to get readable diff output). For benches only.
.SH USE
.TP
.B ?
to get online help.
.TP
.B ??
to get extended online help (more precisely, to call the external help
program,
.B gphelp
by default)
.TP
.B quit
(or \\q), or
.B EOF
(Ctrl-D) to quit
.BR gp .
.PP
The following works only when gp was linked with GNU
.IR readline
library:
.TP
arrow keys
for editing and viewing the input history.
.TP
.B TAB
 for automatic completion

.SH MANUALS
The following material is included in the standard distribution (originally
in TeX format):
.TP
.I The PARI/GP Users's Manual
(users.dvi)
.TP
.I PARI/GP, a tutorial
(tutorial.dvi): not yet completed but still useful.
.TP
.I PARI/GP reference card
(refcard.ps): 4 pages, based on an earlier version by Joseph H. Silverman.
.TP
.I pariemacs.txt
explains the use of the pari.el package, and how to customize it (prompt,
colors).

.SH FILES
.TP
.I gp
main executable
.TP
.I $HOME/.gprc
(or $GPRC if set) read at beginning of execution by each
.B gp
shell. A default gprc
.I gprc.dft
is provided with the distribution. If this file cannot be found,
.I /etc/gprc
is checked instead.
.TP
.I pari.log
default logfile (can be changed in
.I .gprc
or interactively using
.B default()
)
.TP
.I pari.ps
default psfile used for postscript output (as above)
.TP
.I /usr/local/bin/gphelp
default external help program (as above)
.TP
.I /usr/local/lib/pari/pari.el
elisp package to run pari in an
.I Emacs
shell. Must be loaded from your
.I .emacs
file.
.TP
.I *.gp
gp programs

.SH ENVIRONMENT
.TP
.I $GPRC
place to look for the user's gprc file (before $HOME/.gprc, ./gprc, and
/etc/gprc in this order).

.TP
.I $GP_DATA_DIR
directory containing the Galois resolvents files (needed by the
.B polgalois
function, for degrees 8 to 11).

.SH PRIMARY FTP SITE
The most recent distributions can be found at
.RS
.I ftp://megrez.math.u-bordeaux.fr/pub/pari
.RE

Tips, development info, nice icons and bad jokes can be found at
PARI home page, set up by Gerhard Niklasch at
.RS
.I http://www.parigp-home.de/
.RE

.SH MAILING LISTS
There are three mailing lists devoted to the PARI/GP package (run courtesy
of Dan Bernstein), and most feedback should be directed to those. They are:

.PP
-
.B pari-announce
(moderated): for us to announce major version changes.
.PP
-
.B pari-dev:
for everything related to the development of PARI, including
suggestions, technical questions, bug reports or patch submissions.

.PP
-
.B pari-users:
for everything else.

To subscribe, send empty messages respectively to

.PP
   pari-announce-subscribe@list.cr.yp.to
.PP
   pari-users-subscribe@list.cr.yp.to
.PP
   pari-dev-subscribe@list.cr.yp.to

.SH BUG REPORTS
If you find a bug, you should report it. First make sure that it really
is a bug and that it appears in recent versions of the package.
Then you can actually mail your bug report (make it short
and easily reproducible if possible), including the header
.B gp
displays on startup, to the
.IR pari-dev
mailing list (preferably) or to
.IR pari@math.u-bordeaux.fr .
Fixes are welcome too !

.SH TRIVIA
Despite the leading G, GP has nothing to do with GNU. The first version was
originally called GPC, for Great Programmable Calculator. For some reason,
the trailing C was eventually dropped.

PARI has nothing to do with the French capital. The name is a pun about the
project's early stages when the authors started to implement a library for
"Pascal ARIthmetic" in the PASCAL programming language (they quickly
switched to C).

For the benefit of non-native French speakers, here's a slightly expanded
explanation:
.B Blaise Pascal
(1623-1662) was a famous French mathematician and philosopher who was one
of the founders of probability and devised one of the first "arithmetic
machines". He once proposed the following "proof" of the existence of God
for the unbelievers: whether He exists or not I lose nothing by believing
in Him, whereas if He does and I misbehave... This is the so-called "pari
de Pascal" (Pascal's bet).

Note that PARI also means "fairy" in Persian.

.SH AUTHORS
PARI was originally written by Christian Batut, Dominique Bernardi, Henri
Cohen, and Michel Olivier in Laboratoire A2X (Universite Bordeaux I, France),
and was maintained by Henri Cohen up to version 1.39.15, and by Karim Belabas
since then.

A great number of people have contributed to the successive improvements
which eventually resulted in the present version. See the AUTHORS file in
the distribution.

.SH SEE ALSO
.IR dvips (1),
.IR emacs (1),
.IR gap (1),
.IR ghostview (1),
.IR gphelp (1),
.IR maple (1),
.IR perl (1),
.IR readline (3),
.IR tex (1),
.IR xdvi(1)

.SH COPYING

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass
Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.