Hello:

I am a new user on GAP and I have a few questions:

- is there a way to convert from a polynomial to vector? The Polynomial
in Chap. 19 converts vector to poly, but I can't find a command to go
the other way.

- do I refer to an individual element in a vector just the same as I do
in Pascal or C? (eg. vec[0] or vec[1]?)

- is it possible to do interactive inputs? For example, I want to
display:

Please enter a number from 1 to 10:  

GAP will then await for the user to enter a number and put the number
in a variable (say "input").

- I defined a variable by using:

alpha = Z(256)^1;

which means that alpha is first non-zero Galois field element in
GF(256). From now if I want to a power of alpha I just go alpha^2.
Is it possible to display the name of this variable as "alpha" as well?
Currently the output is displayed as "Z(2^8)^26" or similar, which
reduces readability. I tried using:

alpha.name := "alpha"; 

but GAP complains about being a record or something to that effect.

Thanks,
MingS