1. Introduction
  
  
  1.1 Philosophy
  
  Forms  is a package for computation with sesquilinear and quadratic forms on
  finite  vector  spaces.  It provides users with the basic tools to work with
  classical  groups  and polar geometry, and enables one to specify a form and
  its  corresponding  geometry.  Also  included  in  the  functionality of the
  package  are  operations  which  allow  a  user to change coordinates; or to
  ``change form'' and work in an isometric (or similar) polar space.
  
  
  1.2 Overview over this manual
  
  The  next chapter (2.) gives some basic examples of the use of this package.
  In  "Background Theory of Forms" (Chapter 3.) we revise the basic notions of
  the  theory  of  sesquilinear  and  quadratic  forms,  where we also set the
  notation  and conventions adopted by the this package. In Sections 4.1, 4.2,
  and  4.3 we provide the details of the operations, functions, and attributes
  entailed in Forms.