..., or something similar with the weird little thing I did at the following link:        animate area between curves - there's a link to a non-animated version of the same at that link, along with the worksheet.

Axel, that's what I meant. It's really simple using OpenMaple to do lots of neat stuff, and it's pretty simple putting the code in place within a maple worksheet to call into a DLL. I was just wondering if some may have a problem with the creating of the DLL. I'll try to put together some examples as you suggest. Perhaps one very simple one that just takes a value passed by maple, changes it, and returns. That sort of thing requires only a few files and a few lines of code in each. Perhaps another that makes use of the GMP library. I use the Microsoft compilers and accessing the the GMP library with VisualC++ 5.0 statically is virtually impossible (it totally freaks out), while dynamically it's doable. While with Visual Studio 2005 it's no problem at all either statically or dynamically. My preference for DLL and windows device drivers is VC5.0 because it's quick and easy to do C++ style C stuff while the latter is kind of a pain for that sort of thing.

does right-clicking on the plot and choosing "polygon" or "polygon with Outline" from the "style" selection provide what you want? There is also the syntax: plot(sin(x), filled = true)

I never even knew that existed. I just gave it a try and it worked well. When you mentioned a .mpl file, I was thinking it might require a special format but all that was required was that I add the .mpl extention to any plaintext file and run wmint against it - neat! Thanks.

You and Acer have provided some really useful information.

I wonder if everyone who uses maple and also codes in C, really knows how easy it is to create a DLL that maple can use. For those who may wonder... it really is VERY simple. Is there an example here or in application center that shows this? I know that maple help shows how to do the maple end of things, but sometimes, people dealing with C compilers get confused by things like calling conventions and such when making a DLL for use by another application. If not, maybe I can make one up, and make it available.

I added something since you may have read that message. Using the "module" code may have confused you. Be aware that you can "read" anything into maple as if it were a worksheet, so basically all you need in the Maple worksheet is the read... line - that's it. Everything else can be done in the file within the editor. For example if you do: plot(sin(x)); plot(cos(x)); in that file in the editor and then read it into maple with that one read... line, you will get two plots on the screen. good luck.

implementing some of the ideas already presented: Even though there seems to be no solution to your immediate problem with Maple not doing as you'd like, some of the ideas given here are very useful and can be put to immediate use. For example, you can download the Windows based, opensource, "tswebeditor" for free: http://www.tswebeditor.tk/ it does all the neat highlighting, indent, etc. You can then make a simple file using it, for example, "myFile.whatever", that contains: MyModule := module() export tProc1, tProc2; option package; tProc1 := proc() print("this is tProc1"); end proc; tProc2 := proc(x, y) x+y end proc; end module: you can then load Maple and enter: read "c:\\myFile.whatever"; MyModule:-tProc1(); and get the results: "this is tProc1" If you want to make any changes, just go back to the editor, make the changes and save, go back to the Maple worksheet and execute the same lines, or any other line to test the results. using this method, you can create and test code right away, and as Acer suggested, you'll always have it saved in text format - a good thing. You can put anything in that file, just as if you were in the Maple worksheet. For example, I could have added the line: plot(sin(x)); on the next line and the "read" would cause that to be plotted as well. I hope this helps.

I suppose pride is a good thing... or at least something that most of us are burdened by. Whenever I'm confronted with a situation like this, I think back to a scene in a movie called "A River Runs Through It" The father had his son write an essay. The father reviewed it several times until he was satisfied that his son had done well. After he was satisfied with the work he told his son something like, "Now throw it away and go play". Not that I'm that way... but sometimes I wish I were.

here's where the circular slide rule I'm making for the kids now stands: if you want a pdf of it to print and try yourself, it's at the link below. SRuleCirc3.pdf Printing of the .jpg above is not recommended due to problems associated with pixellation of the image. Since the code used to create the rule is postscript for the pdf, printing the pdf will present the scales as intended. This is a project still under construction. I'll have three rings for two scales on front for C/D and CF/DF. On the back, I'll have A/B and something else - not sure at this time what.

... for learning Emacs. I no longer work with unix, but back when I did I tried learning the Emacs editor and found it rather overwhelming and ended up just doing everything with the VI editor. As you suggest, it's a very good and powerful editor and I wished I had taken the time back then to learn it.

It does seem like it would be a rather nice "convenience" item but why do you really need it? I've written some really deeply nested code in regular C as well as Maple without any "dressing it up" with tabs or even line breaks except where things were starting to wrap the screen. Making things look nice is really just for making it easy to go back to later, make it easier for someone else to understand, or at the minimal, so people who look at your code won't think you're some kind of hack. If you're at the place in a project, consider forgetting about making it look nice until it's working and then go back and make it look presentable. This feature that you refer to is something I would really like to see Maplesoft add as well, but if I had a choice between something like this and something that really matters at the mathematics end of things, or bug related, I think I'd choose the latter.

About the spaces/tabs - I know this is a weird way to go about it, but if I'm doing something that's going to require a lot of tabs, I just create 3 spaces on a blank line, and then copy it to the clipboard and then if I'm doing something that requires any nesting that I want to look nice with indentions/per nest, I just hit "ctrl-V" to insert however many of the 3-space blocks (tabs) I want.

I made a "virtual" Kid's rule:     virtual Kid's Rule because a couple people asked me if I would. I really threw the thing together so it's kinda squished, the numbers are too big, and all the lines don't line up precisely due to pixelation. I'll make a couple of really nice ones a little later.

"Personally, I like the ability to create matrices using smaller matrices" That's one of the kinds of things you provide here that I find so worthwhile when reading the messages. I would not have thought of that if you hadn't mentioned it - thanks.