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)