Xmaxima



There are several different interfaces to work with Maxima. It can be run from a "console", or any of several graphical interfaces can be used, such as wxMaxima, imaxima or Xmaxima. The figure shows the look of the Xmaxima, which is a graphical interface originally developed by Professor William Schelter.

Xmaxima establishes a connection (socket) with the program Maxima, sends the commands that you write through that link and shows the answers given by Maxima.

Xmaxima usually opens two independent windows (see the figure). One of the windows, called the browser, shows a tutorial and allows to open the manual or other Web pages. The second window, called the console, is the Maxima commands should be written and the results returned by Maxima will be shown.

In the "Edit" menu there are options to retrieved commands that have been written before("previous input") and to copy and paste text; most menu options can also be accessed directly with shortcut keys as shown on the menu.

Different colors are used to distinguish commands that have already been processed (in blue) from the command that is being written and has not yet been sent to Maxima (in green); the text in black are the results obtained from Maxima (see figure). When editing a command previously executed or when writing a new command, what is being typed should appear in green. If not, it might be necessary to use the options "Interrupt" or "Prompt Input" from the "File" menu, in order to recover the state in which Xmaxima is accepting input commands to be sent to Maxima.

It is also possible to move the cursor to any previous input entry on the screen (in blue), modify it and press the end of line key to repeat the same command.