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)