The printed manual uses different text styles for several purposes. Note that the online help may use other symbols to express the meanings listed below, see Format of Sections.
*text*
Text printed in boldface is used to emphasize single words or phrases.
text
Text printed in italics is used for arguments in the descriptions
of functions and for other place holders. It means that you should not
actually enter this text into GAP but replace it by appropriate
text depending on what you want to do. For example when we write that
you should enter ?section to see the section with the name section,
section serves as a place holder, indicating that you can enter the
name of the section that you want to see at this place.
text
Text printed in a monospaced (all characters have the same width)
typewriter font is used for names of variables and functions
and other text that you may actually enter into your computer
and see on your screen. Such text may contain
place holders printed in italics as described above. For example
when the information for IsPrime says that the form of the call is
IsPrime( n ) this means that you should actually
enter the strings ``IsPrime('' and ``)'', without the quotes,
but replace the n with the number (or expression)
that you want to test.
Oper( arg1, arg2[, opt] ) F
starts a subsection on the command Oper that takes two arguments arg1
and arg2 and an optional third argument opt.
As in the above example, the letter F at the end of a line that starts
with a little black triangle in the left margin indicates that the command
is a simple function.
Other possible letters at the end of such a line are
A, P, O, C, R, and V;
they indicate ``Attribute'', ``Property'', ``Operation'', ``Category'',
``Representation'' (see Chapter Types of Objects), or ``Variable'',
respectively.
In the printed manual, mathematical formulas are typeset in italics (actually math italics), and subscripts and superscripts are actually lowered and raised.
Longer examples are usually paragraphs of their own.
Everything on the lines with the prompts gap> and >, except
the prompts themselves of course, is the input you have to type;
everything else is GAP's response. In the printed manual,
examples are printed in a monospaced typewriter font.
GAP 4 manual