Just Enough Maple
(at least, in Pelsmajer's opinion)A Guide for Students to Save Time, Avoid Frustration, and generally have a better experience using Maple in Calculus at IIT
This guide will not make you an expert in Maple. It will not even cover everything you will see in your Calculus classes. It only contains the essential topics and issues that come up again and again for students in Calculus classes at IIT.
The Guide
- You must read and follow all instructions. I will not waste your time with inessential or superfluous material.
- Click here and follow the instructions: it's a detailed introduction to Maple written by Dr. Greg Fasshauer. Familiarize yourself with the Syntax Tips and Kernel Tips below.
- About 20 minutes before your first couple Maple Labs, review the less obvious parts of Fasshauer's Introduction to Maple, and review the two sets of Tips.
Syntax Tips
Maple will be totally confused by "small" errors in syntax, like for example, using curly brackets " { } " when you need square brackets " [ ] ", or using three dots " ... " when you need two " .. ". This is unavoidable, as anyone who has done any computer programming can tell you. And yet the situation is not hopeless. Here's what you ought to do:
- Copy-and-paste whenever possible, since all details should be correct in the examples you've gotten from your instructor. Then, make small, incremental changes only, and do it very carefully.
In this way, you will usually avoid creating errors in the first place. - If there is an error: DO NOT start changing things at random — before making changes you need to figure out what's wrong, or at least be able to make an educated guess.
If you can't figure it out, the best thing to do is: - Get someone else (TA, classmate, instructor, ARC tutor) to look at your work. Often a fresh set of eyes can notice something—like a missing semicolon—that you won't notice after staring at it for a while.
If that fails, your next best choice is to use Maple Help—efficiently. Click here for an example.
Kernel Tips
The other main source of errors comes from not understanding how "the kernel" works. While it's not hard to understand the kernel, you should be okay if you always follow these tips:
- When you get a new assignment, say "Lab1.mws", save a copy of called BiffSmith1.mws (if your name is BiffSmith). Do all your work in this file. Add this command:
> restart;
to the beginning of BiffSmith1.mws. - Never use a typical variable name (like x, y, z, i, j, j, k) on the left side of an assignment, and never put a number (3, -1, Pi, etc.) on the right side of an assignment.
- Click here for examples, and for an optional brief related discussion of the kernel.
- After you've completed each (sub)section of the assignment, remove all extraneous Maple commands that you ended up not using, and all wrong stuff. But don't remove needed stuff like definitions of a function. Click here to see an example.
All pages listed, for reference
Using Maple Help Efficiently: an example
Bad Examples and the Maple kernel
Example: Removing extraneous commands
Fasshauer's Introduction [Instructions] [Maple
format (right-click & save)] [PDF format]
Also Feedback, and Maple at IIT