Preface

Welcome to &GAP;. This preface serves not only to introduce this manual, the &GAP; Tutorial, but also as an introduction to the system as a whole.

&GAP; stands for Groups, Algorithms and Programming. The name was chosen to reflect the aim of the system, which is introduced in this tutorial manual. Since that choice, the system has become somewhat broader, and you will also find information about algorithms and programming for other algebraic structures, such as semigroups and algebras.

In addition to this manual, there is the &GAP; Reference Manual (see ) containing detailed documentation of the mathematical functionality of &GAP;, and the manual called &GAP; - Changes from Earlier Versions (see ) which describes most essential changes from previous &GAP; releases.

A lot of the functionality of the system and a number of contributed extensions are provided as &GAP; packages and each of these has its own manual.

Subsequent sections of this preface explain the structure of the system and list sources of further information about &GAP;.

The &GAP; System
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Further Information about &GAP;
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