2.3 TeX Macros

As the manual pages are also used as on-line help, and are automatically converted to HTML, the use of special TeX commands should be avoided. The following macros can be used to structure the text, the mentioned fonts are used when printing the manual, however the on-line help and HTML are free to use other fonts or even colour.

``text''

sets the text in typewriter style. This is typically used to denote GAP keywords such as for and false or variables that are not arguments to a function, see also <text>. Use \< to get a ``less than'' sign.

``text''

encloses the text in doublequotes. In particular this does not set text in typewriter style, use ``{text}'' to produce ``text''. Doublequotes are mainly used to mark a phrase which will be defined later or is used in an uncommon way.

\pif

sets a single apostrophe.

<text>

sets the text in italics. This can also be used inside $...$ and ``...''. Use \< to get a ``less than'' sign. <text> is used to denote a variable which is an argument of a function, a typical application is the description of a function:

\>Group( <U> )
The function `Group' constructs a group isomorphic to <U>.

*text*

sets the text in emphasized style.

$a.b$

Inside math mode, you can use . instead of \cdot. Use \. for a full stop inside math mode. For example, $a.b$ produces a.b while $a\.b$ produces a\.b.

\cite{...}

produces a reference to a bibliography entry (the \cite[...]{...} option of LaTeX is not supported).

"ref"

produces a reference to a label. Labels are generated by the commands \Chapter, \Section (see Labels and References).

\index{...}

defines an index entry. Index entries are also used for the section index file manual.six used by the on-line help. An exclamation mark (!) may be used to indicate index subentries.

\indextt{...}

is the same as \index{...}, except that the index entry is printed in typewriter style.

{\GAP}

typesets GAP.

\>

produces a subsection for a function. This macro uses the brackets of the function to parse the arguments and therefore requires the function to use brackets and the arguments to have none. It also creates automatically an index entry. The line following the \> entry must either contain another \> entry (in which case the further entries are assumed to be variants and do not start a new subsection) or must be empty. The description text will follow this empty line. Here is an example how to use \>; the index entry is Size.

\>Size( <obj> )

\>``command'{label}'

Works as \> but will not use bracket matching but simply display command as a header. It will use label as an index entry.

\>`<a> + <b>'{summation}
\>`Size(<obj>)'{size}

In the first of the above examples, \> cannot be used because no brackets occur. In the second example, the difference to the use of \> is that the index entry will be typeset as ``size'' instead of ``Size''.

\>``command'{label}@{text}'

Works as \> but will not use bracket matching but simply display command as a header. It will use label for sorting the index entry which will be printed as text. Here are two examples.

\>`Size(<obj>)'{size}@{`Size'}
\>`Size(GL(<n>,<q>))'{size!gl}@{`Size(GL(<n>,<q>))'}

\){\fmark ...}

is like \> except that it produces no label and index entry.

\URL{url}

Prints the WWW URL url. In the HTML version this will be a HREF link.

\Mailto{email}

Prints the email address email. In the HTML version this will be a mailto link.

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