NAME

       yacas, yacas_client — small and flexible general-purpose computer algebra system

SYNOPSIS

       yacas [options]  [{filename}]

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page documents briefly the yacas and yacas_client commands.

       Yacas  (Yet  Another  Computer  Algebra  System)  is a small and highly flexible general-purpose computer
       algebra language. The syntax uses a infix-operator grammar parser.  The  distribution  contains  a  small
       library of mathematical functions, but its real strength is in the language in which you can easily write
       your own symbolic manipulation algorithms.  The core engine supports arbitrary precision arithmetic,  and
       is linked with the GNU arbitrary precision math library, and is able to execute symbolic manipulations on
       various mathematical objects by following user-defined rules.

       This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution because the original program does  not
       have a manual page.

OPTIONS

       A summary of options is given below

       -c        Inhibit printing of prompts "In>" and "Out>". Useful for non-interactive sessions.

       -f        Reads standard input as one file, but executes only the first statement in it. (You may want to
                 use a statement block to have several statements executed.)

       -p        Does not use terminal capabilities, no  fancy  editing  on  the  command  line  and  no  escape
                 sequences printed. Useful for non-interactive sessions.

       -t        Enable  some extra history recall functionality in console mode: after executing a command from
                 the history list, the next unmodified command from  the  history  list  will  be  automatically
                 entered on the command line.

       {filename}
                 Reads and executes commands in the filename and exits. Equivalent to "Load()".

       -v        Prints version information and exits.

       -d        Prints the path to the Yacas library directory and exits

       The  default operation of  Yacas is to run in the interactive console mode. Yacas accepts several options
       that modify its operation.  Options can be combined.

       In addition to the console mode, an experimental persistent session  facility  is  provided  through  the
       script  yacas_client.  By  means  of this script, the user can configure third-party applications to pass
       commands to a constantly running "Yacas server" and get output.   The  "Yacas  server"  is  automatically
       started  by  yacas_client.  It  may  run  on  a remote computer; in that case the user should have a user
       account on the remote computer and privileges to execute yacas_client  there,  as  well  as  rsh  or  ssh
       access.  The  purpose  of  yacas_client  is to enable users to pass commands to Yacas within a persistent
       session while running another application such as a text editor.

       The script yacas_client reads yacas commands from the standard input  and  passes  them  to  the  running
       "Yacas  server"; it then waits 2 seconds and prints whatever output yacas produced up to this time. Usage
       may looks like this:

       8:20pm Unix>echo "x:=3" | yacas_client
       Starting server.
       [editvi] [gnuplot]
       True;
       To exit Yacas, enter  Exit(); or quit or Ctrl-c. Type ?? for help.
       Or type ?function for help on a function.
       Type 'restart' to restart Yacas.
       To see example commands, keep typing Example();
       In> x:=3
       Out> 3;
       In> 8:21pm Unix>echo "x:=3+x" | yacas_client
       In> x:=3+x
       Out> 6;
       In> 8:23pm Unix>yacas_client -stop
       In> quit
       Quitting...
       Server stopped.
       8:23pm Unix>

       Persistence of the session  means  that  yacas  remembered  the  value  of  "x"  between  invocations  of
       yacas_client.  If  there is not enough time for Yacas to produce output within 2 seconds, the output will
       be displayed the next time you call yacas_client.

       The "Yacas server" is started automatically when first used and can be stopped either by  quitting  yacas
       or by an explicit option yacas_client -stop, in which case yacas_client does not read standard input.

       The  script yacas_client reads standard input and writes to standard output, so it can be used via remote
       shell execution. For instance, if an account "user" on a  remote  computer  "remote.host"  is  accessible
       through ssh, then yacas_client can be used remotely like this:

       echo "x:=2;" | ssh user@remote.host yacas_client

       On  a  given  host  computer running the "Yacas server", each user currently may have only one persistent
       Yacas session.

SEE ALSO

       /usr/share/yacas/documentation/books.html (link  to  URL  file:/usr/share/yacas/documentation/books.html)
       or  http://www.xs4all.nl/~apinkus/manindex.html (link to URL http://www.xs4all.nl/~apinkus/manindex.html)
       for more information.

AUTHOR

       yacas    was    written    by    Ayal    Pinkus    (apinkus@xs4all.nl).    yacas    is    available    at
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~apinkus/yacas.html (link to URL http://www.xs4all.nl/~apinkus/yacas.html) .

       This  manual  page was written by Gopal Narayanan (gopal@debian.org) for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but
       may be used by others).

                                                                                                        yacas(1)