• Be patient! Always wait until the documents are loaded.
• Gapplets do not work: check whether the Gap-server is running and (for windows users) whether you have inserted an Ethernet card.
• Gap is killed: start the Gap-server again (with gapplets.exe or gapplets.sh).
• Script error: reload the page.
• Messed up screen: reload the page.
• No background-colors: allow your browser to use style sheets.
• Links to the secondary pages do not work: allow your browser to use java scripts.
• Check the Algebra Interactive site

The main line can be followed by using the icons at the bottom of pages in the main window. It can lead to the top level (contents), the middle level (chapter overviews), and the ground level (the main pages).

A click leads to the detailed information appearing in a new window.

For searches of various kinds, click the Search icon in the left margin.

Gapplets refer to an applet made to interface with the computer algebra package GAP. They appear in the second window after you click on a pop-up list in a tableau of a main (window) page. Here, usually, you can fill in some input fields. After you press the submit button, you will find the answer in an output field in the same window.

• Main access to the document is via the main window in which one page appears at a time. It usually has the important statements (definitions, theorems, ...) in tableaux, which contain pop-up menus at their bottom-right corners.
• Whenever you click on an item such as "Proof" or "Example" in the pop-up menu of a tableau, the so-called second window will appear or, if present, will be reloaded. It will contain information relevant to, and usually in more detail than, that given in the main window.
• The third window is controlled by the buttons in the frame at the left of the main window. In this third window you can find help, a table of contents, several lists to search through Algebra Interactive, tools to do computations and a list of prerequisites.

So keep the second window at hand for support. All JAVA applets appear in the second window as well.

Java applets appear mainly under the Cool button at the bottom of the main pages.

Some are also obtained by clicking in the pop-up menu of a tableau.

But most applets are Gapplets, applets using the computer algebra package GAP in the background.

There are three kinds of exercise.

• A multiple-choice question called from the pop-up menu in each tableau and appearing in the second window.
• Self-tests available at under the icon `Exercises'. These are multiple-choice tests, which return a rating of your score after completion. They appear in the second window. You can do such a test on a particular chapter or on all the chapters up to some point.
• Exercises at the end of each chapter, appearing in the main window, with solutions and hints appearing in the second window upon request by pop-up menu click.

    a Java applet or gapplet to give you the flavour of the section or chapter

    to previous page at same level

    to higher level

    to lower level

    to next page at same level

   

The left margin is separated from the main text by an adjustable bar. In the left margin you find a number of icons. Clicking these icons will open a third window with:

	Some background on Interactive Algebra and its developers
	this page
	overview of the 8 chapters; you can open them by clicking the desired title
	facilities to search for topics, symbols, pages, applets, gapplets, ...
	four calculation tools, a calculator for modular calculus with integers, a polynomial calculator, a modular polynomial calculator and a calculator for permutations
	prerequisites, a list of notions you are supposed to be familiar with. A short description of each of these terms unfolds with a click
	multiple-choice exercises on each of the chapters and on all the chapters up to the one you are working in. These multiple-choice tests return a rating of your score after completion. They appear in the second window
	clicking this button will kill the connection with the computer algebra system Gap. When Gap is killed you cannot run the gapplets.