<html><head><title>[loops] 1 Introduction</title></head>
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<h1>1 Introduction</h1><p>
<P>
<H3>Sections</H3>
<oL>
<li> <A HREF="CHAP001.htm#SECT001">Installation</a>
<li> <A HREF="CHAP001.htm#SECT002">Documentation</a>
<li> <A HREF="CHAP001.htm#SECT003">Test files</a>
<li> <A HREF="CHAP001.htm#SECT004">Feedback</a>
<li> <A HREF="CHAP001.htm#SECT005">Acknowledgement</a>
</ol><p>
<p>
<font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font> is a package for <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">GAP4</font> whose purpose is to:
<ul>
<li>
provide researchers in nonassociative algebra with a powerful computational tool
concerning finite loops and quasigroups,
<li>
extend <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">GAP</font> toward the realm of nonassociative structures.
</ul>
<p>
<p>
<h2><a name="SECT001">1.1 Installation</a></h2>
<p><p>
We assume that you have <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">GAP 4.4</font> or newer installed on your computer.
Download the <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font> package from the distribution website
<p>
<a href="http://www.math.du.edu/loops">http://www.math.du.edu/loops</a>
<p>
and unpack the downloaded file into the <code>pkg</code> subfolder of your <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">GAP</font> folder.
<p>
After this step, there should be a subfolder <code>loops</code> in your <code>pkg</code> folder. The
package <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font> can then be loaded to <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">GAP</font> anytime by calling
<pre>
LoadPackage("loops");
</pre>
If you wish to load <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font> automatically while starting <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">GAP</font>, open the file
<code>loops/PackageInfo.g</code>, and change <code>Autoload:=false</code> to
<code>Autoload:=true</code> in the file.
<p>
<p>
<h2><a name="SECT002">1.2 Documentation</a></h2>
<p><p>
The documentation is available is several formats: TeX, pdf, dvi, ps, html,
and as an online help in <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">GAP</font>. All these formats have been obtained directly
from the master TeX documentation file. Consequently, the different formats
of the documentation differ only in their appearance, not in content.
<p>
All formats of the documentation except html can be found in the <code>doc</code> folder
of <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font>, while the html version is in the <code>htm</code> folder. You can also
download the documentation at the <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font> distribution website.
<p>
The online <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">GAP</font> help is available upon installing <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font>, and can be
accessed in the usual way, i.e., upon typing <code>?</code><var>command</var>, <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">GAP</font> displays the
section of the <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font> manual containing information about <var>command</var>.
<p>
<p>
<h2><a name="SECT003">1.3 Test files</a></h2>
<p><p>
Test files conforming to the <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">GAP</font> standards are provided for <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font>. They
can be found in the folder <code>tst</code>. The command <code>ReadPackage("loops",
"tst/testall.g")</code> runs all tests for <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font>.
<p>
<p>
<h2><a name="SECT004">1.4 Feedback</a></h2>
<p><p>
We welcome all comments and suggestions on <font face="Gill Sans,Helvetica,Arial">LOOPS</font>, especially those
concerning the future development of the package. You can contact us by e-mail.
<p>
<p>
<h2><a name="SECT005">1.5 Acknowledgement</a></h2>
<p><p>
We thank the following people for sending us remarks and comments, and for
suggesting new functionality of the package: Muniru Asiru, Bjoern Assmann,
Andreas Distler, Steve Flammia, Kenneth W. Johnson, Michael K. Kinyon, Frank
Lübeck, and Jonathan D. H. Smith.
<p>
Gábor P. Nagy was supported by OTKA grants F042959 and T043758, and Petr
Vojt\vechovský by the 2006 PROF grant of the University of Denver.
<p>
[<a href = "chapters.htm">Up</a>] [<a href ="CHAP002.htm">Next</a>] [<a href = "theindex.htm">Index</a>]
<P>
<address>loops manual<br>March 2008
</address></body></html>
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