aimmath-developers — Development related messages

Re: [Aimmath-developers] changes

[Chris S. <san...@fo...>]

Neil, and other developers.

I have been trying to install the develop_2_1 branch of AIM to test the
new features.  I obtainted the error shown below.  I know that StringTools
is not available in Maple 6, but is available in Maple 7 and I presume
later.  Is this the source of the problem?  Do I need to upgrade to Maple
7? (which I don't think will be a problem) If so, is it intended that
Maple 7 be required for the new release of AIM?

Cheers 
Chris


C:\Tomcat\webapps\AIM\WEB-INF\maple>cmaple
    |\^/|     Maple 6 (IBM INTEL NT)
._|\|   |/|_. Copyright (c) 2000 by Waterloo Maple Inc.
 \  MAPLE  /  All rights reserved. Maple is a registered trademark of
 <____ ____>  Waterloo Maple Inc.
      |       Type ? for help.
> read("AutoConf.mpl");
AIM will now try to configure your system automatically.
All messages from the configuration process will also be written
in the file autoconf.log

Maple version number is 6
Operating system is not Unix, assumed to be some kind of Windows
Reading user supplied options from ManualConfig.mpl

                               problems := false

Looking for Java
Java found at c:\jdk1.3.1

Looking for Tomcat
Tomcat found at c:\tomcat

Looking for Maple
Maple found at C:\Program Files\Maple 6\bin.wnt\cmaple.exe


Looking for upload directory
upload directory found at C:\DOCUME~1\sangwinc\LOCALS~1\Temp

Finding the host name
Host name set to localhost

Setting time zone
Time zone set to GMT (= UTC +0 hours)
Setting other configuration options

Looking for TtH
Number of lines processed approximately 1
TtH found at C:\Program Files\tth_exe\tth.exe

Writing Config.mpl and ServletConfig.mpl
Renaming Config.mpl as Config.bak

AIM was successfully configured.
com.oreilly.servlet classes are already installed.
bytes used=1001708, alloc=917336, time=0.46
Reading Package.mpl...Error, (in pread) too many files simultaneously open for r
eading
done
Error, `StringTools` does not evaluate to a module
Error, could not open `lib/aim/AdminCommands.m` for writing
Reading Aim.mpl...Error, (in pread) `StringTools` does not evaluate to a module
Error, (in sprintf) format string expected
Error, (in sprintf) format string expected
Error, (in sprintf) format string expected
done
Reading AliceServer.mpl...Error, (in pread) could not open `lib/aim/AdminCommand
s.m` for reading
Error, (in pread) cannot evaluate boolean:
OS/FileExists(c:/tomcat/webapps/AiM/WEB-INF/root/DefaultZone.mpl)
done
>

[Aimmath-developers] postprompt>/pp> tag

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

Dear all,

As far as I can see the pp> tag doesn't work yet?
Is that what others observe?

  Regards,
  Greg

Re: [Aimmath-developers] AIM and Maple 9 not good news

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003, Jon Breitenbucher wrote:
> Greg,
> 
> Thanks for the files. I made the changes. Now I am getting some strange 
> messages when I run the AutoConf.mpl under the latest develop_2_1. The 
> configuration and processing of Servlet all go fine and Make.mpl starts 
> and runs. However, when Make gets to Package.mpl, I get a "Reading 
> Package.mpl...Error, (in pread) too many files simultaneously open for 
> reading done." A second run of AutoConf.mpl does not give the error. 
> Any thoughts?

Is there some circular dependence? ... one file invoking the read of 
another, that reads another etc. that reads the original file in the
cycle. Maybe wahtever happened is embedded in an if-block and on the
2nd run, something that was written out on the first run through
(there are a few places where it is checked whether a certain file
exists) prevents that if-block from being entered.

> There also seems to be something wrong with the HTML markup. On the 
> Zone page I don't get the explanations of the options but messages like 
> "#Explanation of security level" and "#Explanation of admin email" 

These messages are defined in WEB-INF/maple/locales/en.mpl.
Perhaps this file is not readable for some reason or was not read during
the Make process ... it is read from I18n.mpl.

> These messages are showing up on other pages as well. I've diffed all 
> of the files with a previous version and don't see anything related to 
> these messages that has changed.
> 
> Lastly, the new question files are not working for me. I can compile 
> the questions but when I Try a question I get

Are these problems coming up under Mac OS X, with the LaTeX -> aim/LaTeX
changes ... or are they also coming up under Windows?

  Regards,
  Greg

Re: [Aimmath-developers] Browser detection

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003, Neil Strickland wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I don't have a copy of Greg's browser detection code, ...

Hi Neil,

Welcome back ... do you want it?

> I think that the right mechanism for browser detection is for the servlet to
> invoke request.getHeader("User-Agent") to return a string describing the
> browser.

I thought I tried something like that (before trying the current 
approach) and ran into some problem with static variables that I didn't 
understand, but you're probably right ... my knowledge of java is not great.
Are you saying it can be done without pasting javascript into the page 
also?

  Regards,
  Greg

[Aimmath-developers] Browser detection

[Neil S. <N.P...@sh...>]

Hi All,

I don't have a copy of Greg's browser detection code, because I mangled
various
things trying to read my email while away from Sheffield; but I did read his
outline of how it works.

I think that the right mechanism for browser detection is for the servlet to
invoke request.getHeader("User-Agent") to return a string describing the
browser.
(See under the HttpServletRequest class at
http://java.sun.com/products/servlet/2.3/javadoc/index.html). I don't think
that
there is any reason to use hidden parameters or session management.

Neil

Re: [Aimmath-developers] AIM and Maple 9 not good news

[Jon B. <jbr...@wo...>]

Greg,

Thanks for the files. I made the changes. Now I am getting some strange 
messages when I run the AutoConf.mpl under the latest develop_2_1. The 
configuration and processing of Servlet all go fine and Make.mpl starts 
and runs. However, when Make gets to Package.mpl, I get a "Reading 
Package.mpl...Error, (in pread) too many files simultaneously open for 
reading done." A second run of AutoConf.mpl does not give the error. 
Any thoughts?

There also seems to be something wrong with the HTML markup. On the 
Zone page I don't get the explanations of the options but messages like 
"#Explanation of security level" and "#Explanation of admin email" 
These messages are showing up on other pages as well. I've diffed all 
of the files with a previous version and don't see anything related to 
these messages that has changed.

Lastly, the new question files are not working for me. I can compile 
the questions but when I Try a question I get

##################################
Seed:
  Error in MakeVersion:
  Assignment to invalid field in class aim/TextQuestion/Version: [Label]
  Retry
  Question:

INSTANCE(aim/TextQuestion)
  ForbiddenWords =
   {
   }
  Name =
   "Tutorial_1"
  Title =
   ""
  PartLabel =
   ""
  Value =
   1
  BadTrialPenalty =
   .1
  AnswerVariable =
   ""
  TimeLimit =
   2.0
  SourceFile =
   "Tutorial.aim"
  Description =
   ""
  Keywords =
   [
   ]
  SeedShift =
   3591382491
  Locals =
   [
    "a"
    "L"
   ]
  SProc =
   proc (questioninstance) local solution_; global L, a; solution_ := 
""; questioni...
  MProc =
   NULL
  AProc =
   NULL
  VProc =
   NULL
  Level =
   0
  IProc =
   proc (questionversion) local postamble_, preamble_, solution_; global 
L, a; prea...
##############################

and on a Quiz

##############################

Error

There was an untrapped error while processing your command.
Assignment to invalid field in class aim/TextQuestion/Version: [Label]

Parameters:

Name
Value

QuizName
AIM syntax

Command
try/Quiz

Action
Mark

SubjectName
Calculus with Algebra A 8 AM

Access
all

Dir
quizzes/AIM syntax

DueDateDay
0

DueDateHour
0

DueDateMinute
0

DueDateMonth
0

DueDateYear
0

Mode
practice

QuestionName
Tutorial_1

QuizSeed
0

SelectorText

ShowHiddenQuestions
false

ShowQuestionSelector
false

Title
AIM syntax

VersionIsNew
false

Weight
1.0

Tutorial_10Order
10

Tutorial_11Order
11

Tutorial_13Order
12

Tutorial_1Order
1

Tutorial_2Order
2

Tutorial_3Order
3

Tutorial_4Order
4

Tutorial_5Order
5

Tutorial_6Order
6

Tutorial_7Order
7

Tutorial_8Order
8

Tutorial_9Order
9

Back Close
###############################
___________________________________
Error message Haiku:
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

Jon Breitenbucher
The College of Wooster
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Wooster, Ohio 44691

(330)263-2207
jbr...@wo...
http://jbreitenbuch.wooster.edu/~jonb

Re: [Aimmath-developers] AIM and Maple 9 not good news

[Jon B. <jbr...@wo...>]

Thanks. I'll make the changes to my files. Someone might also want to 
begin exploring Maple 9's codegen[MathML] feature.

On Friday, July 25, 2003, at 12:46  PM, Greg Gamble wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, Jon Breitenbucher wrote:
>> Do you or maybe other developers have an idea of how many files this
>> will impact? I'll poke around and see what I find.
>
> It should only be .mpl files in the WEB-INF/maple directory and
> subdirectories. I've just done the changes to a local develop_2_1 copy.
> Essentially, what I did was:
>
>   1. globally substituted LaTeX( for `aim/LaTeX`(
>   2. globally substituted `LaTeX/ for `aim/LaTeX/
>   3. moved the `aim/LaTeX... commands to aim/LaTeX.mpl
>   4. added: aim/LaTeX   to PackageList
>   5. added:
>
> if Config['MapleVersion'] <= 8 then
>   `Package/Assign`(`LaTeX/trim`        ,"", `aim/LaTeX/trim`):
>   `Package/Assign`(LaTeX               ,"", `aim/LaTeX`):
>   `Package/Assign`(`LaTeX/Subs`        ,"", `aim/LaTeX/Subs`):
>   `Package/Assign`(`LaTeX/Wrap`        ,"", `aim/LaTeX/Wrap`):
>   `Package/Assign`(`LaTeX/Display`     ,"", `aim/LaTeX/Display`):
>   `Package/Assign`(`LaTeX/DisplayParse`,"", `aim/LaTeX/DisplayParse`):
> fi;
>
>      to aim/LaTeX.mpl so that the old names are still available in
>      versions of Maple up to 8.
>
> I've tested it out. It seems to be be working, except that I'm
> getting a weird error:
>
> Error reading image count file
> /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/AIM/imagecache/count: file or directory does 
> not
> exist
>
> on some questions I compile. I'm not convinced that whatever's causing
> this wasn't there before. Has anyone else observed this error or know 
> what
> I should look? Would you like me to commit my changes, anyway? ... or
> maybe I can send you the changed files as a .zip or .tar.gz file.


>
> I haven't a clue what could be causing this. When you hit Mark a bit of
> javascript is invoked:
>
> function Mark() {
>  f = document.aimform;
>  f.Command.value = 'try/Question';
>  f.Action.value  = 'Mark';
>  f.target = '_self';
>  f.submit();
> };
>
> ... perhaps you can work out from there what happens.
>
>   Regards,
>   Greg

I haven't tried Marking a question. All I have tried is using the Try 
feature. So I may look at that. What is so strange is that things like 
2/5 or Pi are parsed correctly as answers, but exp and ln are 
definitely parsed as pxe and nl. It also happens that we do mess with 
latex/exp and latex/ln. I may try something with an answer of sin(x) as 
a check.
_______________________________________________________
Mathematics as a science, commenced when first someone, probably a 
Greek, proved propositions about "any" things or about "some" things, 
without specifications of definite particular things. (Alfred North 
Whitehead)

Jon Breitenbucher
The College of Wooster
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Wooster, Ohio 44691

(330)263-2207
jbr...@wo...
http://jbreitenbuch.wooster.edu/~jonb

Re: [Aimmath-developers] AIM and Maple 9 not good news

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, Jon Breitenbucher wrote:
> Do you or maybe other developers have an idea of how many files this 
> will impact? I'll poke around and see what I find.

It should only be .mpl files in the WEB-INF/maple directory and 
subdirectories. I've just done the changes to a local develop_2_1 copy.
Essentially, what I did was:

  1. globally substituted LaTeX( for `aim/LaTeX`(
  2. globally substituted `LaTeX/ for `aim/LaTeX/
  3. moved the `aim/LaTeX... commands to aim/LaTeX.mpl
  4. added: aim/LaTeX   to PackageList
  5. added:
      
if Config['MapleVersion'] <= 8 then
  `Package/Assign`(`LaTeX/trim`        ,"", `aim/LaTeX/trim`):
  `Package/Assign`(LaTeX               ,"", `aim/LaTeX`):
  `Package/Assign`(`LaTeX/Subs`        ,"", `aim/LaTeX/Subs`):
  `Package/Assign`(`LaTeX/Wrap`        ,"", `aim/LaTeX/Wrap`):
  `Package/Assign`(`LaTeX/Display`     ,"", `aim/LaTeX/Display`):
  `Package/Assign`(`LaTeX/DisplayParse`,"", `aim/LaTeX/DisplayParse`):
fi;

     to aim/LaTeX.mpl so that the old names are still available in
     versions of Maple up to 8.

I've tested it out. It seems to be be working, except that I'm
getting a weird error:

Error reading image count file 
/usr/local/tomcat/webapps/AIM/imagecache/count: file or directory does not 
exist

on some questions I compile. I'm not convinced that whatever's causing 
this wasn't there before. Has anyone else observed this error or know what
I should look? Would you like me to commit my changes, anyway? ... or 
maybe I can send you the changed files as a .zip or .tar.gz file.

> > To try all this out, what version of AIM are you experimenting with
> > ... is it the one in develop_2_1?
> 
> Yes, I believe I am using develop_2_1 with modifications to several of 
> the files to get OS X support. I'll commit them once I've got things 
> working. Although I think I am the only person in the world whose using 
> these files. That's a frightening thing to think about.

I think that will change in time.
 
> I just installed a copy of command line Maple 8 beta for OS X (expires 
> at the end of August) and as expected it does not have any issues with 
> Maple to LaTeX. I may ask Maplesoft if they can give me a non-beta 
> license for Maple 8 CL. For the short term this may be my best option. 
> Even though I love working on AiM, I really should be working on things 
> that are publishable.
> 
> Also, even after switching to Maple 8 CL, some answers are still being 
> parsed in reverse (exp and maybe others).

I haven't a clue what could be causing this. When you hit Mark a bit of
javascript is invoked:

function Mark() {
 f = document.aimform;
 f.Command.value = 'try/Question';
 f.Action.value  = 'Mark';
 f.target = '_self';
 f.submit();
};

... perhaps you can work out from there what happens.
 
> As an aside, if you follow Gustav's suggestion and keep AiM in a 
> directory other than ROOT and don't mess with server.xml, you can run 
> multiple versions of AiM against different versions of Maple.

Yes, I sorted this out. Currently, I have the develop_2_1 version in
an AIM directory, and the original version upgraded to have the new
develop_2_1 features and some additional tweaks of my own I haven't
committed yet (they ought to be a little further first). However,
under admin. the Results stuff is all broken, presumably because it
hasn't had the multipart question stuff incorporated yet ...
could someone confirm that this is the case and maybe give me a few clues
how to fix it? (Our students are starting back for our second semester
here ... and I'd dearly love to have the focus/unfocus and multipart
questions available for them.)

  Regards,
  Greg

Re: [Aimmath-developers] AIM and Maple 9 not good news

[Jon B. <jbr...@wo...>]

Do you or maybe other developers have an idea of how many files this 
will impact? I'll poke around and see what I find.

On Friday, July 25, 2003, at 01:04  AM, Greg Gamble wrote:

> So what is needed then is a shift of all the `LaTeX...`
> commands of AIM to a new package file aim/LaTeX.mpl with functions
> `LaTeX...` becoming `aim/LaTeX...` and all references to these
> functions in the .mpl files and quizzes being similarly changed.
>
> I guess if we did this. Then we could have some conditional text
> checking for whether the maple version was <= 8 and if so make
> all the old `LaTeX...` names synonyms for the new names, to give
> people some breathing space if they have used any `LaTeX...`
> commands in their quizzes (like me).
>
> To try all this out, what version of AIM are you experimenting with
> ... is it the one in develop_2_1?

Yes, I believe I am using develop_2_1 with modifications to several of 
the files to get OS X support. I'll commit them once I've got things 
working. Although I think I am the only person in the world whose using 
these files. That's a frightening thing to think about.

I just installed a copy of command line Maple 8 beta for OS X (expires 
at the end of August) and as expected it does not have any issues with 
Maple to LaTeX. I may ask Maplesoft if they can give me a non-beta 
license for Maple 8 CL. For the short term this may be my best option. 
Even though I love working on AiM, I really should be working on things 
that are publishable.

Also, even after switching to Maple 8 CL, some answers are still being 
parsed in reverse (exp and maybe others). I guess one of my OS X system 
functions has an error or something that is tied to answer parsing is 
different on OS X. Do all user inputs get parsed with the same 
function? My passwords and things work. When I enter a course name it 
displays correctly and so I just wonder what is different about the 
parsing of answers?

As an aside, if you follow Gustav's suggestion and keep AiM in a 
directory other than ROOT and don't mess with server.xml, you can run 
multiple versions of AiM against different versions of Maple. So I have 
develop_2_1 running against Maple 9 and I also have an install of 
develop_2_1 running against Maple 8. Not Earth shattering, but 
interesting. Maybe there is a way this could be beneficial. There are 
obvious benefits for development, but I'm not sure how else we might 
make use of this.
________________________________________
The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with facts for which Archimedes 
would have sacrificed his life. (Ernest Renan)

Jon Breitenbucher
The College of Wooster
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Wooster, Ohio 44691

(330)263-2207
jbr...@wo...
http://jbreitenbuch.wooster.edu/~jonb

RE: [Aimmath-developers] AIM and Maple 9 not good news

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Friday, 25 July 2003 12:19 PM, Jon wrote: 
> Greg,
> 
> Here is one response from the beta list
> 
> > In Maple 9, both the latex() command and the export to LaTeX 
> > functionality
> > available through the Export menu in the new Worksheet, use the same 
> > code and
> > are hence consistent with each other. To make this possible, 
> > line-breaking code
> > was inserted into the latex() code as you show below.
> >
> > Could you give an example that you are having problems with?
> ... 
> Note that Laurent doesn't mention that LaTeX is a module. Here is the 
> new undocumented LaTeX module
> 
> > > LaTeX(e);
> >
> > module () local DoExport, ExportInternal, KEYW, PROCBREAK, _break, 
> > _breakstring, _charcount, _count, _indentation, _lexicalseq, 
> > _localseq, _maxchars, _paramseq; export Export, Print, 
> > CheckLineBreak, 
> > CountCharacters, NoBreak, DoBreak, NoCount, DoCount, ResetCount, 
> > SetCount, ExportInert, ExportWorksheetExpression; end module(e)
> 
> So the real problem is not with latex/latex/*, but with the LaTeX/trim 
> and other functions using LaTeX. Would you agree? 

Yes ... if the only change is the addition of line-breaking code
which we don't need (and should make no difference to us) then
the redefinitions of `latex/...` should be fine.

So what is needed then is a shift of all the `LaTeX...`
commands of AIM to a new package file aim/LaTeX.mpl with functions
`LaTeX...` becoming `aim/LaTeX...` and all references to these 
functions in the .mpl files and quizzes being similarly changed.

I guess if we did this. Then we could have some conditional text
checking for whether the maple version was <= 8 and if so make
all the old `LaTeX...` names synonyms for the new names, to give
people some breathing space if they have used any `LaTeX...`
commands in their quizzes (like me).

To try all this out, what version of AIM are you experimenting with
... is it the one in develop_2_1?

> I think the most frustrating thing is that this change is not
> documented anywhere. I am suggesting that this be added to the
> help and what's new.

Yes, very annoying that the change wasn't mentioned in their documentation.

  Regards,
  Greg
 

Re: [Aimmath-developers] AIM and Maple 9 not good news

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Thu, 24 Jul 2003, Jon Breitenbucher wrote:
> Interesting. Here is what I get
> 
> > > interface(verboseproc=2);
> > > eval(`latex/latex/function`);
> > proc(e)
> > local `(`, `)`, `,`, texlist, `{`, `}`, ` \\left( `, ` \\right) `;
> > ...
> >         texlist := texlist, LaTeX:-CheckLineBreak();
> > ...
> >         LaTeX:-CheckLineBreak()
> > end proc
> 
> What is the LaTeX:-CheckLineBreak? This looks like a module reference 
> and is missing from LaTeX.mpl

Hi Jon,

Looks like you found the problem. Those commands are new. There must be
a new module called LaTeX in Maple 9. This seems to be the usual way they
proceed, e.g. there has long been a linalg package, but LinearAlgebra is 
their module package - it re-implements and extends the older package.

So what does

> ?LaTeX

tell you? I hope that it will at least tell you that LaTeX is a new
command in Maple 9 that returns a string. Then, at least, one could
possibly omit the LaTeX.mpl package completely ... though possibly
doing that will still run into problems with tth (Neil's `LaTeX/trim`
command deleted extra whitespace that upset tth).

> ...
> I'm guessing that this is the culprit. Is this a redefinition of 
> latex/latex/function to return a string?

No, the small changes that Neil made to the Maple latex/... functions
were to improve the output so tth would work with it. To get a string,
Neil uses the `latex/print` command in the body of AIM's LaTeX command.

> Maybe not. I tried commenting out all of the things you indicated and I 
> still get Maple to LaTeX errors even for things like u+s+w+z.

I'm sure whatever Maple 9 now has defined in the LaTeX module (I'm 
convinced it exists) is messing things up.
 
> Another question. Do you have any idea why my answers are being parsed 
> in reverse? -exp(1) seems to get parsed as (1)pxe- and AIM says pxe is 
> a forbidden name.

The reversal is mysterious. The forbidden name bit makes sense though,
since AIM rejects any undefined names longer than 1 character.
  
> Also, I noticed when viewing the source that AIM produces <script 
> language="javascript">. This is not valid HTML 4.0.1. It should be 
> <script type="text/javascript">. 

I guess all the current browsers still support it ... hence why we
haven't had any problems with it. However, there is a chance that
some browsers follow the letter of HTML 4.0.1 more closely, and so
will be broken. 

> Also the <font> attribute is depricated and AIM should be using
> CSS style attributes. 

You are right ... we should use CSS style attributes eventually,
but I suspect that <font> will be a supported tag by browsers for
a long while yet, since so many webpages use it. I would say, this
is not a high priority change, but we should eventually make the
change to using CSS. Changing to XML/MathML may make this imperative.
(I'm not exactly sure what's supported in XML by say mozilla).

> Are these concerns for the developer list?

Yes, eventually. I don't know whether the first one might be urgent
... if a browser like opera, konqueror or safari doesn't parse
language=javascript, I would class it as reasonably urgent. If on the
other hand changing to use type="text/javascript" breaks Internet
Explorer, then I would say we should leave as is, at least for now.

  Regards,
  Greg

RE: [Aimmath-developers] AIM and Maple 9 not good news

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Wednesday, 23 July 2003 9:18 PM, Jon Breitenbucher wrote:
> Well, here is what happens when I try and read Console.mpl and use 
> LaTeX and latex. It seems as if LaTeX breaks latex?

In Make.mpl there are the lines:

readlib(latex):
unassign('`latex/exp`'):
unassign('`latex/ln`'):
unassign('`latex/log`'):

Then in LaTeX.mpl they are redefined.

> >     |\^/|     Maple 9 (APPLE PPC OSX)
> > ._|\|   |/|_. Copyright (c) Maplesoft, a division of Waterloo Maple 
> > Inc. 2003
> >  \  MAPLE  /  All rights reserved. Maple is a trademark of
> >  <____ ____>  Waterloo Maple Inc.
> >       |       Type ? for help.
> > > read "Console.mpl";
> > bytes used=4033988, alloc=3276200, time=1.36
> > > latex(int(x^2*sin(x),x=Pi/4..Pi/2));
> > Error, (in latex/latex/+) `LaTeX` does not evaluate to a module

This probably explains what's happened. The original way that Maple
defined packages was via tables, hence the syntax linalg[det], but
then Maple introduced modules (probably in Maple 6) and new packages
that were developed after that time were written as modules rather
than tables; a module function may use the (preferred) syntax 
linalg:-det (or for compatibility, the table syntax).

I'm guessing then that latex has been rewritten as a module, and
so the re-definitions of `latex/exp`, `latex/ln` and `latex/log` 
need to be re-written in module syntax to work in Maple 9.

As an interim measure, `just to get things working', I would comment
out the lines

unassign('`latex/exp`'):
unassign('`latex/ln`'):
unassign('`latex/log`'):

in Make.mpl and then also comment out the redefinitions of 
`latex/exp`, `latex/ln` and `latex/log` in LaTeX.mpl.

Probably, you will need to comment out all the other `latex/...`
command definitions too in LaTeX.mpl, which would leave just 
`LaTeX/trim` and `LaTeX`.
 
> There also seems to have been no change to latex. I checked all of the 
> help and documentation files and didn't see anything. 

Could you check to see whether the documentation (or possibly the
manuals that come with Maple 9) make any mention of a rewriting of
latex as a module? Without reading in Console.mpl what output do you
get with:

> interface( verboseproc = 2 );
> eval(`latex/latex/function`);

  Regards,
  Greg

RE: [Aimmath-developers] AIM and Maple 9 not good news

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Wednesday, 23 July 2003 4:41 AM, Jon wrote: 
> Hello all,
> 
> I had reported earlier that Maple 9 on OS X was giving Maple to LaTeX 
> errors. Well, I just installed Maple 9 on my production AIM server 
> (Windows 2000) and got the same Maple to LaTeX errors. 
> ...
> I am not sure where the error is. I haven't been able to figure out if 
> Maple 9 has changed how it handles LaTeX or if there is a Maple 
> programming change that needs to be made in AIM. ...

Hi Jon,

When you first reported these problems on OS X, I suspected that the
problems were due to changes in Maple. The LaTeX function in AIM, as
I understand it, is a re-engineered version of the latex (all lowercase)
function of Maple. The problem with the native latex function of Maple
is the output is not a string ... it is just printed to the output
(which can be to the terminal or to a file). 

It would be helpful, I think, if you tried using the latex and LaTeX
functions directly, i.e. start an interactive maple session in the
WEB-INF/maple directory and do:

> read "Console.mpl";

and then try using the functions latex and LaTeX on some maths
objects, e.g.

> latex(int(x^2*sin(x), x = Pi/4 .. Pi/2));
\pi +1/32\,{\pi }^{2}\sqrt {2}-\sqrt {2}-1/4\,\pi \,\sqrt {2}
> LaTeX(int(x^2*sin(x), x = Pi/4 .. Pi/2));
        "\pi +1/32\,{\pi }^{2}\sqrt {2}-\sqrt {2}-1/4\,\pi \,\sqrt {2}"

I suspect that the LaTeX command will just give some horrible error
message, but it may help in diagnosing what's going wrong. You might
also look at the documentation for the latex command. Do:

> ?latex

... and see if there is any mention of what's been newly added there
in Maple 9. It would be very interesting, if, for example, Maple 9
had an extra option which allowed the output of latex to be a string.
This is an excerpt of the Maple 8 documentation for latex:

- The function latex produces output as a side-effect, and returns
  NULL as the function value. Therefore the ditto commands, % and %%,
  will not recall the LaTeX output.

If, in Maple 9, there were to be an extra option then it might also be
the cause of the failure of the LaTeX command, but then we wouldn't
need the LaTeX command (except possibly for a few minor changes) in
Maple 9 and could replace it with latex and the the new option.
Anyway, enough speculation ... I hope the above helps a little in 
tracking down the problem. 

  Regards,
  Greg

[Aimmath-developers] AIM and Maple 9 not good news

[Jon B. <jbr...@wo...>]

Hello all,

I had reported earlier that Maple 9 on OS X was giving Maple to LaTeX 
errors. Well, I just installed Maple 9 on my production AIM server 
(Windows 2000) and got the same Maple to LaTeX errors. I took a short 
cut to my install of Maple 9 for AIM. I just changed the web.xml file's 
path to cmaple.exe and everything worked as one would expect. I didn't 
redo the AutoConf, Servlet, Make procedure and I don't think it was 
necessary. If this is wrong please correct me.

I am not sure where the error is. I haven't been able to figure out if 
Maple 9 has changed how it handles LaTeX or if there is a Maple 
programming change that needs to be made in AIM. I also did not get a 
chance to check if Maple 9/AIM on Windows parsed answers in reverse. 
This is another problem I am having with Maple 9/AIM on OS X.
_____________________________________
I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art. (G. H. Hardy)

Jon Breitenbucher
The College of Wooster
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Wooster, Ohio 44691

(330)263-2207
jbr...@wo...
http://jbreitenbuch.wooster.edu/~jonb

[Aimmath-developers] [ aimmath-Bugs-772556 ] function in map becomes a t

[SourceForge.net <no...@so...>]

Bugs item #772556, was opened at 2003-07-16 19:31
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by gustav_delius
You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=439479&aid=772556&group_id=44411

Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Gustav W Delius (gustav_delius)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: function in map becomes a t

Initial Comment:
The following will print [1,4,9]

h> f := x->x^2;; 
   b :=eval(map(f,[1,2,3]));
t> $$@b@$$
a>1
end>

This is expected. 
But the following will print [ t(1), t(2), t(3)] 

h> b := eval(map(x->x^2,[1,2,3]));
t> $$@b@$$
a>1
end>

Why? Where did the t come from?



----------------------------------------------------------------------

>Comment By: Gustav W Delius (gustav_delius)
Date: 2003-07-18 22:01

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=737246

Hi Gustav,

I would say that the t was a local variable generated by the 
codegen
Maple package. Occasionally, I have found that t has been 
assigned to
1 and just recently E was set to 0 for a quiz. I believe these 
are all
codegen bugs, nothing to do with the AIM code. In many 
contexts the arrow
notation fails to work in a quiz question and you need to use 
the
proc() end; syntax. If you want to use an anonymous 
function in b
use unapply, e.g.

h> b := eval(map(unapply(x^2, x), [1,2,3]));

Unfortunately, these bugs will remain I suspect until the 
usage of
codegen is replaced by CodeGeneration. Anyway, when Neil 
gets back,
he may be able to elaborate.

  Regards,
  Greg

----------------------------------------------------------------------

You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=439479&aid=772556&group_id=44411

Re: [Aimmath-developers] RE: AiM Community: Re: Works with all browsers

[Manolis M. <ma...@ma...>]

> * Alice.java is supposed to grab the value of "Browser" and pass it down
>   to subsequent webpages that the student visits, like the various
>   "Command"s are.
> The java script browser detection part works; the java code compiles, but
> subsequent webpages visited don't get the value of "Browser" passed down.
> Can anyone see what I might be doing wrong?

Subsequent calls to Alice servlet do not contain the hidden vbariable that
you passed the first time

>Any hints about how to get the
> java code to write out info. as it's going would be helpful too. My main
> problem is I don't know enough java ... I'm better at C etc.

One solution is to keep on passing a hidden parameter broswer to every page
but I don't like solutions like these. A better solution is to use the
session functionality that Tomcat has. I am sorry I can't demonstrate since
I am away but I tried it on my laptop's AIM and seems it works :

initially we can do the following somewhere before the maple.exec:

Session session = request.getSession();
session.setAttribute("browser", alicereq.browser);

that sets the browser attribute of the user session (we need to conduct some
tests to test if session exists with request.getSession(true) etc. but this
is trivial) and then

maple.exec("`aim/Main`(" + commandargs + "):\n",
                    // "",
                    " -u",
                    ((String)session.getAttribute("browser").equals("IE") ?
"" : " -u"),
                    webOutput);

> Also, if someone can see a way of doing it without having two separate
> index.html variants that would be good too.

the two pages are OK to have ... but if it is a matter of only setting the
hidden variable Broswer then you can do it programmatically with JavaScript.
For this you can set a function onSubmit that is called before actually
submitting and sets the hidden value (I can do this at the end of the month
if you want so stick with the two pages for the moment)

> ... and we can detect for Netscape 4 on windows and make it use symbol
> font, and warn that Netscape 4 on UNIX requires some special
> configuration, and then we can look at other browsers like safari, opera
> and konqueror and decide if the Unicode option is the correct one etc.

and hopefully later by detecting Mozilla we can finally use MathML and
Mozilla's native rendering which is great !!


Manolis

RE: [Aimmath-developers] [ aimmath-Bugs-772556 ] function in map becomes a t

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Thursday, 17 July 2003 3:32 AM, Gustav wrote:
> Bugs item #772556, was opened at 2003-07-16 19:31
> Category: None
> Group: None
> Status: Open
> Resolution: None
> Priority: 5
> Submitted By: Gustav W Delius (gustav_delius)
> Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
> Summary: function in map becomes a t
>
> Initial Comment:
> The following will print [1,4,9]
>
> h> f := x->x^2;;
>    b :=eval(map(f,[1,2,3]));
> t> $$@b@$$
> a>1
> end>
>
> This is expected.
> But the following will print [ t(1), t(2), t(3)]
>
> h> b := eval(map(x->x^2,[1,2,3]));
> t> $$@b@$$
> a>1
> end>
>
> Why? Where did the t come from?

Hi Gustav,

I would say that the t was a local variable generated by the codegen
Maple package. Occasionally, I have found that t has been assigned to
1 and just recently E was set to 0 for a quiz. I believe these are all
codegen bugs, nothing to do with the AIM code. In many contexts the arrow
notation fails to work in a quiz question and you need to use the
proc() end; syntax. If you want to use an anonymous function in b
use unapply, e.g.

h> b := eval(map(unapply(x^2, x), [1,2,3]));

Unfortunately, these bugs will remain I suspect until the usage of
codegen is replaced by CodeGeneration. Anyway, when Neil gets back,
he may be able to elaborate.

  Regards,
  Greg

FW: [Aimmath-developers] data conflict?

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Wednesday, 16 July 2003 4:17 PM, Gustav wrote:
> Here is a question that shows that I don't quite understand how AiM
> works:
> AiM runs several Maple processes in parallel, each one of them
> reads from and writes to the same student and quiz data files.
> So why is there never a conflict?

As I understand the algorithm, AIM has up to 8 Maple (mserver)
processes, each servicing only one student at a time. Any individual
student is only (under normal circumstances) assigned to one process.
If a student has only just logged on (and isn't already logged on),
their request is passed to the next available process; otherwise their
request is serviced by the process that was last assigned to them and
if that's busy then I think they get an `AIM is busy' message.

I said `under normal circumstances'. Sometimes a process becomes
unresponsive because a student's request has caused Maple to attempt
to do something that's intractable. It seems that under these circumstances
a student can be assigned a new process, and if they
send the same thing they `burn' another process. This is how a
couple of server crashes/freezes occurred last semester (one student
sends the same intractable request 8 times - the other 7 times happen
because the student is thinking `Why isn't AIM responding?' and sends
it again, hoping AIM will wake up). It's not clear to me what exactly
happens here. Is it possible for a very long request to finally succeed
and write something to a student's data directory at exactly the same
time as another write? I don't think this is possible, because I
believe the java process running the show puts a lock on the file before
it writes and another process must wait for the lock to be taken off.

That's my meagre understanding ... possibly Ken if he's listening in
could explain it better.

  Regards,
  Greg

Re: [Aimmath-developers] port 8080

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003, Gustav W Delius wrote:
GG> ... and it all works fine, except that you will notice that I didn't
GG> want port 8080 (but instead use port 80) which I have configured in
GG> ManualConfig.mpl. However, everytime the admin.html and index.html
GG> page are regenerated (by adding a subject) the form action is set
GG> to a URL with :8080 inserted. I can edit it correctly by hand, but
GG> where is this coming from? It's apparently generated by aim/Zone.mpl
GG> using Config['ServletURL'], but I've checked this via Console.mpl
GG> ... it is the URL given above. So what's going on?
> ... 
> The only idea I have is that perhaps you first used your installation on
> port 8080 and later changed to 80. It is then possible that the 8080 has
> found its way into some of the automatically generated files in the
> directory web-inf/root. Could you search all files in there for an occurence
> of 8080?

Indeed, I had neglected to add the configuration 

Config['TomcatPort'] := 80:

in ManualConfig.mpl, on my first pass and so the file DefaultZone.mpl 
written to the top of the WEB-INF/root directory had the port :8080
inserted in the servlet URLs.

I see that this file is first written by AliceServer.mpl. I would have
avoided the problem if I had removed this file before rereading
AutoConf.mpl. We should have a warning that WEB-INF/root/DefaultZone.mpl 
should be removed or at least checked for wrong information before
re-reading AutoConf.mpl after changing ManualConfig.mpl in our 
installation instructions.
 
  Regards,
  Greg

[Aimmath-developers] RE: AiM Community: Re: Works with all browsers

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003, Gustav W Delius wrote:
> I would certainly like to look at what you have done. Where do I look?

Dear Gustav and everyone,

What I've done is a bit half-baked and it's been about a month since I've 
done any work on it ... so I'll explain the components and what
I changed (the java script stuff really needs to be added in automatically 
via a .mpl file, but I haven't looked at that yet). The components are
in the attached .zip file which expands to the following hierarchy:

  ROOT/
      index.html
      Uindex.html
      WEB-INF/
             java/
                 Alice.java
                 Maple.java
                 tth/
                    TtH.java

* Firstly, the idea is that there be two variants of the index.html
  page. The default uses symbol font but has a javascript function
  to redirect to the other variant Uindex.html.

  o You will observe two extra javascript functions: Trim and BrowserDetector
    in the head of index.html
  o Inside the <form ...> ... </form> tags you will find

     <input type="hidden" name="Browser" value="IE">

    in index.html and

     <input type="hidden" name="Browser" value="Unicode">

    in Uindex.html.
* Alice.java is supposed to grab the value of "Browser" and pass it down
  to subsequent webpages that the student visits, like the various
  "Command"s are. You will notice on lines 595 - 599:

      maple.exec("`aim/Main`(" + commandargs + "):\n",
                 // "",
                 " -u",
                 // (alicereq.browser.equals("IE") ? "" : " -u"),
                 webOutput);

  If everything was working the commented out line, line 598 would
  be used instead of line 597 (line 597 causes the option " -u" (Unicode)
  to be always passed to tth). The commented out line, line 596 instead
  of line 597 would pass "" (for symbol font) always.
* Maple.java is modified essentially for the adjustment in TtH.java.
* MaplePool.java was not changed and so is not included.
* TtH.java is modified so that its exec method accepts an extra argument
  tthOpt which is either "" (for IE (symbol font) browsers) or " -u" 
  (for Unicode browsers)

The java script browser detection part works; the java code compiles, but 
subsequent webpages visited don't get the value of "Browser" passed down.
Can anyone see what I might be doing wrong? Any hints about how to get the
java code to write out info. as it's going would be helpful too. My main
problem is I don't know enough java ... I'm better at C etc.

Also, if someone can see a way of doing it without having two separate
index.html variants that would be good too.

If we can the rudimentary detection working, we can beef this up further
to print messages like:

  Internet Explorer 5: Your browser has a bug that `flattens' multiple
                       levels of indices, e.g. e^(x^2) will appear as 
                       e^(x2). Please upgrade to at least Internet 
                       Explorer 6

... and we can detect for Netscape 4 on windows and make it use symbol 
font, and warn that Netscape 4 on UNIX requires some special 
configuration, and then we can look at other browsers like safari, opera
and konqueror and decide if the Unicode option is the correct one etc. 

  Regards,
  Greg

Re: [Aimmath-developers] buggy SourceForge tracker

[Manolis M. <M.M...@ed...>]

Bugzilla is a better option ... it needs time to setup though and it seems
more complicated at the beggining but I think it's better at the end... we
can discuss that later and perhaps I could even host it in edinburgh.

cheers

Manolis

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gustav W Delius" <gu...@ma...>
To: "AIM developers" <aim...@li...>
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 8:34 AM
Subject: [Aimmath-developers] buggy SourceForge tracker


> I dislike the SourceForge tracker. It appears very buggy too, adding items
> multiple times and sending out duplicates of e-mails. We will switch to
> something better soon. In the meantime, apologies for all the e-mail
> flooding your inboxes.
>
> Gustav
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.Net email sponsored by: Free pre-built ASP.NET sites including
> Data Reports, E-commerce, Portals, and Forums are available now.
> Download today and enter to win an XBOX or Visual Studio .NET.
> http://aspnet.click-url.com/go/psa00100006ave/direct;at.asp_061203_01/01
> _______________________________________________
> Aimmath-developers mailing list
> Aim...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/aimmath-developers
>

[Aimmath-developers] fix of av> sets answerprompt problem

[Gustav W D. <gw...@yo...>]

I have just committed a changed Compile.mpl which fixes a bug which used to
hit whenever the new av> tag was used in a subquestion of matrix type. For
some reason av> also set an answerprompt. But (again for some unknown
reason) matrix questions do not allow answerprompts and give an error
message. I have now changed it so that av> does not generate an
answerprompt.

Gustav

[Aimmath-developers] port 8080

[Gustav W D. <gw...@yo...>]

Greg wrote:
> ... and it all works fine, except that you will notice that I didn't
> want port 8080 (but instead use port 80) which I have configured in
> ManualConfig.mpl. However, everytime the admin.html and index.html
> page are regenerated (by adding a subject) the form action is set
> to a URL with :8080 inserted. I can edit it correctly by hand, but
> where is this coming from? It's apparently generated by aim/Zone.mpl
> using Config['ServletURL'], but I've checked this via Console.mpl
> ... it is the URL given above. So what's going on?

This is strange. If you have set Config['TomcatPort'] = "80" in your
ManualConfig.mpl then there is really no way the 8080 could enter. The only
place where 8080 is explicitly in the code is in AutoConf.mpl in the
following line:

  setconfig('TomcatPort' , "8080"):

But the way setconfig works is that if TomcatPort is already assigned a
value then it is not overwritten. So it should still be 80.

The only idea I have is that perhaps you first used your installation on
port 8080 and later changed to 80. It is then possible that the 8080 has
found its way into some of the automatically generated files in the
directory web-inf/root. Could you search all files in there for an occurence
of 8080?

Gustav

RE: [Aimmath-developers] APPROVAL: multiple AiM installations

[Greg G. <gr...@ma...>]

On Wednesday, 16 July 2003 7:25 PM, Gustav wrote:
> Dear Greg,
> 
> I just noticed that I never answered your questions, even though 
> the new installation instructions in installwin.html may already
> have answered it.
> 
> > However, I got the feeling that you were saying you could have
> > the two going simultaneously, in which case server.xml would 
> > need to be changed more substantially ... a different server port? 
> > or do you only need to copy the `<Context path=...' line and give
> > a different value for path which will appear in the URL?
> 
> In fact no change is required at all. Modern Tomcats come with a 
> server.xml that needs no modifications.

Thanks Gustav,

What I was confused about was that I could see that the new tree would
need to be served under a different URL, and I was unclear as to how
that happened. When I looked at your installwin.html, I noticed that
the directory name appeared in the URL. So then I had a look at
AutoConf.mpl and when it sets TomcatContext it first checks if the
subdirectory of webapps containing the AiM stuff is ROOT or something
else. If it's not ROOT then the directory name is appended to the URL.

So, now I have my parallel developer's AIM directory at:

  http://olld.maths.curtin.edu.au/AIM/

and my original which was in webapps/ROOT under

  http://olld.maths.curtin.edu.au/

... and it all works fine, except that you will notice that I didn't
want port 8080 (but instead use port 80) which I have configured in
ManualConfig.mpl. However, everytime the admin.html and index.html
page are regenerated (by adding a subject) the form action is set
to a URL with :8080 inserted. I can edit it correctly by hand, but
where is this coming from? It's apparently generated by aim/Zone.mpl
using Config['ServletURL'], but I've checked this via Console.mpl
... it is the URL given above. So what's going on?

PS I had to make a few adjustments to AutoConf.mpl and Servlet.mpl
to repair things for Linux and fix typos.

BTW It was a nice idea to make AutoConf.mpl proceed on to reading
Servlet.mpl and Make.mpl. That simplifies the install quite a bit
for first time users.

Regards,
Greg

[Aimmath-developers] [ aimmath-Bugs-772556 ] function in map becomes a t

[SourceForge.net <no...@so...>]

Bugs item #772556, was opened at 2003-07-16 19:31
Message generated for change (Tracker Item Submitted) made by Item Submitter
You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=439479&aid=772556&group_id=44411

Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Gustav W Delius (gustav_delius)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: function in map becomes a t

Initial Comment:
The following will print [1,4,9]

h> f := x->x^2;; 
   b :=eval(map(f,[1,2,3]));
t> $$@b@$$
a>1
end>

This is expected. 
But the following will print [ t(1), t(2), t(3)] 

h> b := eval(map(x->x^2,[1,2,3]));
t> $$@b@$$
a>1
end>

Why? Where did the t come from?



----------------------------------------------------------------------

You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=439479&aid=772556&group_id=44411