Environment Variables - Maple Programming Help

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Environment Variables

Description

 • Environment variables can be used in a simple assignment.  In a procedure body, the assignment is automatically undone on exit from the procedure.  The value of the environment variable is available to all subprocedures called from that procedure, unless locally superseded.
 • The following is a list of predefined environment variables:

 % %% %%% _ans Digits UseHardwareFloats index/newtable mod Normalizer NumericEventHandlers Order printlevel Rounding Testzero

 • A variable with name beginning with "_Env" is considered an environment variable.
 • $%$, $%%$, and $%%%$ are the results of the last, second last, and third last computation in the current environment.
 • Digits is the number of significant digits used for floating-point operations, and is set to 10 initially.
 • mod is set to modp initially.
 • Normalizer is set to normal initially, and is used by the kernel in series to normalize leading terms of divisors.
 • Order represents the order of series calculations performed by Maple. It does not represent the order of the series output. Order is set to 6 initially.
 • The setting of printlevel causes the display of the results of all statements executed up to the level indicated by printlevel. Initially, printlevel is set to 1.
 • Testzero is initialized with proc() evalb(Normalizer(args[1]) = 0) end proc, which is a relatively trivial test for zero.  Testzero is used in the kernel by series, when it needs to determine whether a leading coefficient is zero for division. In principle, every test for zero and every call to normal should be done using these functions.
 • The call anames('environment') returns a sequence of all the currently active environment variables. Note that an _Env variable is not considered to be an environment variable at the top level; only once execution is inside a procedure is an environment set up to protect the top-level value of the variable. So, _Env variables only show up if these variables are modified within a procedure, and anames('environment') is called from within the procedure or at a deeper level of execution.

Examples

 > t := proc() Digits := Digits + 4;  end proc:
 > $\mathrm{print}\left(\mathrm{Digits}\right)$
 ${10}$ (1)

During the execution of "t", Digits is increased by 4, and automatically reset on exit from "t".

 > $t\left(\right)$
 ${14}$ (2)
 > $\mathrm{print}\left(\mathrm{Digits}\right)$
 ${10}$ (3)

The following is an example of a user-defined environment variable.

 > $\mathrm{_Envy}≔\mathrm{foo}$
 ${\mathrm{_Envy}}{≔}{\mathrm{foo}}$ (4)
 > p := proc() _Envy := bar end proc:
 > $p\left(\right)$
 ${\mathrm{bar}}$ (5)
 > $\mathrm{_Envy}$
 ${\mathrm{foo}}$ (6)
 > $\mathrm{anames}\left(\mathrm{environment}\right)$
 ${\mathrm{Testzero}}{,}{\mathrm{UseHardwareFloats}}{,}{\mathrm{Rounding}}{,}{%}{,}{\mathrm{_ans}}{,}{\mathrm{%%%}}{,}{\mathrm{Digits}}{,}{\mathrm{index/newtable}}{,}{\mathrm{mod}}{,}{\mathrm{%%}}{,}{\mathrm{Order}}{,}{\mathrm{printlevel}}{,}{\mathrm{Normalizer}}{,}{\mathrm{NumericEventHandlers}}{,}{\mathrm{_Envy}}$ (7)
 > p := proc() _Envy := bar; anames(environment) end proc:
 > $p\left(\right)$
 ${\mathrm{Testzero}}{,}{\mathrm{UseHardwareFloats}}{,}{\mathrm{Rounding}}{,}{%}{,}{\mathrm{_ans}}{,}{\mathrm{%%%}}{,}{\mathrm{Digits}}{,}{\mathrm{index/newtable}}{,}{\mathrm{mod}}{,}{\mathrm{%%}}{,}{\mathrm{Order}}{,}{\mathrm{printlevel}}{,}{\mathrm{Normalizer}}{,}{\mathrm{NumericEventHandlers}}{,}{\mathrm{_Envy}}{,}{\mathrm{_Envy}}$ (8)
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