NAME
gphelp - GP-PARI online help script
SYNOPSIS
gphelp [-to_pod file] [-raw] [-detex] [-k] [-ch c1] [-cb c2] [-cu c3]
[keyword [ @{1,2,3,4,5} ]] [tutorial] [refcard]...
DESCRIPTION
Invokes the PARI-GP online help script. By default, keyword is
understood as a section heading (a GP function name), and gphelp looks
for it in Chapter 3 of PARI User’s Manual. If it is found, the
corresponding section is copied to a temporary file in /tmp (or
$GPTMPDIR), TeX is run then the corresponding section is displayed in a
separate window, using xdvi (or $GPXDVI).
If more than one keyword is given on a single command line, the outputs
are concatenated. If keyword is omitted, open the whole manual
users.dvi. The keywords tutorial and refcard open the GP tutorial and
reference card respectively.
GP defaults, help sections (1 to 11) as well as some keywords
(readline, bnf, ell, all operators...) are recognized and treated in a
special way to make sure they match a section heading. For instance &&
is translated to Comparison and boolean operators which isn’t that
obvious to guess. Make sure to enclose keyword between quotes if it
contains dangerous characters (e.g spaces). For instance, you need to
type
gphelp -k "elliptic curves"
and not
gphelp -k elliptic curves
which would look for "elliptic" then for "curves" and output e.g.
ploth among the relevant sections.
FULL SEARCH: @ MARKERS
The pattern @x (where x is a chapter number between 1 and 5) at the end
of keyword conducts the search in the corresponding chapter instead of
the default Chapter 3. If the number is omitted, search the whole
manual. For instance
gphelp -k gerepile@4
will look for gerepile in Chapter 4 of users manual.
gphelp -k gerepile@
will search the whole manual. All chapters of the manual
(usersch[1-5].tex) are assumed to be in $GPDOCDIR (defaultvaluesetby
Configure). You are allowed to gzip (or compress) them, this won’t
affect the search.
OPTIONS
The following command line options are available:
-cb, -color_bold c2
color used for bold. See -color_help.
-ch, -color_help c1
color (between 1 and 16) used for general printing. Only
significant in detex mode.
-cu, -color_underline c3
color used for underline. See -color_help.
-detex Use detex mode. The TeX file is converted to readable screen
output that is directly written to the terminal; don’t use tex
or xdvi.
-k Switch to apropos mode. Only write to standard output the list
of section headings in manual which contain keyword.
You can then choose an element in the list and use it as
argument for gphelp (surround it by quotes if it includes
spaces), possibly followed by a trailing @ marker (see above).
-raw use internal format for output (using @x markers). For debugging
only.
-to_pod file
try to convert file from TeX to POD format. Will only work on
some subset of PARI User’s Manual (Chapter 3, reference card).
This should be the only arguments on the command line.
ENVIRONMENT
COLUMNS
number of columns available on screen (for detex mode)
DISPLAY
where to launch the dvi previewer. If unset, detex mode is
assumed automatically.
GPDOCDIR
directory where PARI help files are located. Default value set
at Configure time.
GPTMPDIR
directory where temporary files are written
GPXDVI
dvi previewer to use
FILES
gp the gp calculator
gphelp the gphelp script
users.dvi
PARI/GP User’s Manual
tutorial.dvi
PARI/GP tutorial
refcard.dvi
GP reference card
refcard.ps
GP reference card, printer ready
BUGS
The search algorithm is rather crude and the data searched rather
unstructured. Hence, searching outside of Chapter 3 may not yield
useful results, except in apropos mode (sections may be truncated too
soon for instance).
Multiword search patterns have a tendency to fail due to various TeX
constructs in the source.
AUTHORS
Originally written by Ilya Zakharevitch for the Math::Pari perl
package. Rewritten and expanded by Karim Belabas for the main PARI
distribution.
SEE ALSO
gp(1), gzip(1), readline(1), tex(1), xdvi(1).
COPYING
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
25 June 1999