@acer ok, so that's cool. maxima has functions too, but I really never had to use one.

Admittedly, I am new to Maple. I haven't really looked at Maple since before I even went to college. And for the most part I used, um, a competitor, when I was in college. I usually used open source since then because I couldn't justify $1000 for a CAS I used for fun. Now that I am looking again, and these single user licenses seem reasonably priced, I'm looking forward to using a more professional program.

I did spend a fair amount of time looking to see what I could find for variable replacement like maxima had and I just couldn't find anything obvious. I haven't read the 500 page user manual yet, nor have I had time to go through most worthwhile maple videos. I did go through a few, and I did also look for some specific to this issue.

If there are any obvious resources for a computer professional with a minor in mathematics, and experience in maxima and (a competitor), I am totally open to checking them out.

Thanks again for this information. As much as I tend to use this particular feature. This very well may come in quite useful.

Yes, your answer essentially answers my question. I know there will be differences and something of a learning curve switching systems. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to do a lot more typing, particularly around a set of parens AND a set of brackets all the time, but such is life :)

When I work out some type of problem, I pretty much always start with variables and equations, combine them piece by piece, work it out to a final output, then at the end enter the numbers.

So for like 20 lines, I'm doing %previousguy, a1=3p*2r, etc. etc.

and then at the very end, I will do %previousguy, x1=10,x2=20, etc.

Having to put in eval(,[]) on every line is kind of  pain in the butt, but I'll get used to it, I'm sure.

Thank you.