GAP Manual: 3.7. Format of Sections

This section describes the format of sections when they are displayed on the screen and the special conventions used.

As you can see GAP indents sections 4 spaces and prints a header line containing the name of the section on the left and the name of the chapter on the right.

<text>

Text enclosed in angle brackets is used for arguments in the descriptions of functions and for other placeholders. It means that you should not actually enter this text into GAP but replace it by an appropriate text depending on what you want to do. For example when we write that you should enter ?section to see the section with the name section, section servers as a placeholder, indicating that you can enter the name of the section that you want to see at this place. In the printed manual such text is printed in italics.

'text'

Text enclosed in single quotes is used for names of variables and functions and other text that you may actually enter into your computer and see on your screen. The text enclosed in single quotes may contain placeholders enclosed in angle brackets as described above. For example when the help text for IsPrime says that the form of the call is 'IsPrime( <n> )' this means that you should actually enter the IsPrime( and ), without the quotes, but replace the n with the number (or expression) that you want to test. In the printed manual this text is printed in a monospaced (all characters have the same width) typewriter font.

"text"

Text enclosed in double quotes is used for cross references to other parts of the manual. So the text inside the double quotes is the name of another section of the manual. This is used to direct you to other sections that describe a topic or a function used in this section. So for example Abbreviating Section Names is a cross reference to the next section. In the printed manual the text is replaced by the number of the section.

_ and ^

In mathematical formulas the underscore and the caret are used to denote subscription and superscription. Ordinarily they apply only to the very next character following, unless a whole expression enclosed in parentheses follows. So for example x_1^(i+1) denotes the variable x with subscript 1 raised to the i+1 power. In the printed manual mathematical formulas are typeset in italics (actually mathitalics) and subscripts and superscripts are actually lowered and raised.

Longer examples are usually paragraphs of their own that are indented 8 spaces from the left margin, i.e. 4 spaces further than the surrounding text. Everything on the lines with the prompts gap> and >, except the prompts themselves of course, is the input you have to type, everything else is GAP's response. In the printed manual examples are also indented 4 spaces and are printed in a monospaced typewriter font.

    gap> ?Format of Sections
    Format of Sections ______________________________________ Environment

    This section describes the format of sections when they are displayed
    on the screen and the special conventions used.

    ...