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statement, while the colon tells it not to print the result. The terminator does not need to be typed on
the same line as the rest of the statement, so if you forget it on one line you can type it on the next
line. For example:
> 4+5:
is a statement to add 4 and 5 but not to print the result. An equivalent statement is:
> 4+5
> :
In this case, after the first line Maple will assume that you have not finished your statement. On seeing
the colon on the next line, Maple will realize the statement is finished and evaluate 4+5. If you are
using X Windows, it will give you the statement "Warning, premature end of input". You can avoid this
by typing Shift-Return instead of Return.
You can put more than one statement on a line, just as you can break a statement across multiple
lines. The requirement is that statements be terminated, not that they fit on a line.
There are two Maple statements that do not have to be terminated in this way: quit and the ? form of
the help request:
> quit
> ?help
[a help window appears]
Maple has a number of pre-defined global variables. When you choose names for your own variables,
you should avoid the predefined ones. They are there to help you control how Maple works. This is
discussed further in the section.
11.2.2 Comments and Echoing (Kommentar und Echo)
Any line or portion of a line beginning with a # is treated as a comment. Comments are ignored in
processing. For example:
> 4+5;#This is an example of a comment
gives the output:
9
Since a comment is not a statement, it does not need to be terminated. It only causes the remaining
input on the line to be ignored.
It is possible to control how much information is echoed in Maple. The echo level can be set with the
interface function. An echo level of four causes comments and statements to be echoed. For more
information on how to control various user-interface settings, type:
> ?interface
11.2.3 Simple Arithmetic (einfache Arithmetik)
As you may have determined from some of the examples above, you can use Maple to evaluate
arithmetic expressions in the intuitively obvious way:
0+ for addition
1- for subtraction
2* for multiplication
3/ for division
Arithmetic expressions are evaluated according to typical precedence rules (Rechenregeln, "Punkt vor
Strich"), so:
> 4+2*3;
10
because 2*3 is evaluated before the addition. Other useful operators are:
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