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1 Introduction
 1.1 Information for package authors

1 Introduction

The Utils package provides a space for utility functions from a variety of GAP packages to be collected together into a single package. In this way it is hoped that they will become more visible to other package authors. This package was first distributed as part of the GAP 4.8.2 distribution.

The package is loaded with the command


gap> LoadPackage( "utils" ); 

Functions have been transferred from the following packages:

Transfer is complete (for now) for functions from the following packages:

The package may be obtained either as a compressed .tar file or as a .zip file, utils-version_number.tar.gz, by ftp from one of the following sites:

The package also has a GitHub repository at: https://github.com/gap-packages/utils.

Once the package is loaded, the manual doc/manual.pdf can be found in the documentation folder. The html versions, with or without MathJax, may be rebuilt as follows:


gap> ReadPackage( "utils", "makedoc.g" ); 

It is possible to check that the package has been installed correctly by running the test files (which terminates the GAP session):


gap> ReadPackage( "utils", "tst/testall.g" );
Architecture: . . . . . 
testing: . . . . . 
. . . 
#I  No errors detected while testing

Note that functions listed in this manual that are currently in the process of being transferred are only read from the source package Home (say), and so can only be used if Home has already been loaded. There are no such functions in transition at present.

1.1 Information for package authors

A function (or collection of functions) is suitable for transfer from a package Home to Utils if the following conditions are satisfied.

Authors of packages may be reluctant to let go of their utility functions. The following principles may help to reassure them. (Suggestions for more items here are welcome.)

The process for transferring utility functions from Home to Utils is described in Chapter 12.

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