(xmaxima.info)Entering commands

---

Next: Session control Prev: Main Window Up: Top

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

3 Entering commands
*******************

Most commonly, you will enter Maxima commands in the last input line
that appears on the text Window.  That text will be rendered in green.
If you press enter, without having written a command-termination
character (either ';' or '$') at the end, the text will remain green and
you can continue to write a multi-line command.  When you type a
command-end character and press the enter key, the text will become blue
and a response from Maxima should appear in black.  You can also use the
key combination 'Ctrl-j' to move to a new line without sending the input
for Maxima evaluation yet.  If you want to clear all the current input
(in green), even if it spans several lines, use the key combination
'Ctrl-u'.

   If you move the cursor over the '(%i1)' input label, or any other
label or output text (in black), you will not be able to type any text
there; that feature will prevent you from trying to enter a command in
the wrong place, by mistake.  If you really want to insert some
additional text to modify Maxima's output, and which will not be
interpreted by Maxima, you can do that using cut and paste (we will
cover that later).

   You can also write a new input command for Maxima on top of a
previous input line (in blue), for instance, if you do not want to write
down again everything but just want to make a slight change.  Once you
press the enter key, the text you modified will appear at the last input
line, as if you had written it down there; the input line you modified
will continue the same in Xmaxima's and Maxima's memory, in spite of
having changed in the screen.

   For example, suppose you entered 'a: 45;' in input line '(%i1)', and
something else in '(%i2)'.  You then move up over the '(%i1) a: 45;' and
change the 5 for an 8.  Once you press enter, you will have in the
screen '(%i1) a: 48;' and '(%i3) a: 48;'.  But if you write, in the
current input line, '(%i1)' the original input 'a: 45;' will reappear.
If you navigate through the input lines history (see next section), you
will also see that the first input keeps its original value.

3.1 Input lines history
=======================

When the cursor is at the end of the last '(%i)' label, you can use the
key combinations 'Alt-p' and 'Alt-n' to recover the previous or next
command that you entered.  If you have just pressed 'Alt-n', the 'next'
command means the first one you entered; but if you press it again it
will mean the second one and so on.

   In the same way, if you press 'Alt-p' repeatedly, until you reached
the first input, it will then continue to the last command you entered.
Once you get on the screen the command that you were looking for, it
will appear in green, as if you would have just type it, and you can
modify it before you press enter.

   Those two key combinations can also be used to search for a previous
input line with a particular string in it.  You first write down the
string to search, and then press 'Alt-p', to search backwards, or
'Alt-n' to search forward.  Pressing those key combinations repeatedly
will allow you to cycle through all the lines that contain the string.
If you want to try a different string in the middle of the search, you
can delete the current input, type the new string, and start the search
again.

3.2 Cutting and pasting
=======================

You can cut or copy a piece of text that you select, from anywhere on
text window; not just from the input lines but also from the output text
in black.

   To select the text, you can drag the cursor with the mouse while you
keep its left button depressed, or you can hold the 'shift' key with one
finger, while you move the cursor with the mouse or with the arrow keys.

   Once you have selected the text, you can either cut it, with
'Ctrl-x', or copy it to an internal buffer, with 'Ctrl-c'.  Instead of
those key combinations, you can also use two options that appear inside
the 'Edit' menu.

   The text that has been cut or copied more recently can be pasted
anywhere, even in the output fields, using 'Ctrl-v' or an option in the
'Edit' menu.

   There is a command similar to 'cut', called 'kill' ('Ctrl-k', with
two major differences: it only works in input fields (blue or green) and
instead of cutting a text that was selected, it will cut all the text
from the cursor until the end of the input line where the cursor is.
The command 'Clear input' ('Ctrl-u') is similar to 'kill', but it will
cut the whole input line.

   To paste the last text that you have cut with either 'kill' or 'clear
input', you should use the 'yank' command, 'Ctrl-y'.  If you prefer, you
can use entries in the 'Edit' menu to kill, clear input and yank.

3.3 Other key combinations
==========================

There are other useful key combinations, which are not particular to
Xmaxima, but are defined in most Tcl/Tk programs:

'Ctrl-f'
     The same as the right arrow key.
'Ctrl-b'
     The same as the left arrow key.
'Ctrl-p'
     The same as the up arrow key.
'Ctrl-n'
     The same as the down arrow key.
'Ctrl-a'
     Moves to the first character in a line (either input or output)
'Ctrl-e'
     Moves to the last character in a line (either input or output)
'PageUp'
     Moves one page up
'PageDown'
     Moves one page down
'Home'
     Moves the first character in the text window.
'End'
     Moves to the last character in the text window.