This section describes the format of sections when they are displayed on the screen and the special conventions used.
As you can see GAP indents sections 4 spaces and prints a header line containing the name of the section on the left and the name of the chapter on the right.
<text>
Text enclosed in angle brackets is used for arguments in the descriptions
of functions and for other placeholders. It means that you should not
actually enter this text into GAP but replace it by an appropriate
text depending on what you want to do. For example when we write that
you should enter ?section to see the section with the name section,
section servers as a placeholder, indicating that you can enter the
name of the section that you want to see at this place. In the printed
manual such text is printed in italics.
'text'
Text enclosed in single quotes is used for names of variables and
functions and other text that you may actually enter into your computer
and see on your screen. The text enclosed in single quotes may contain
placeholders enclosed in angle brackets as described above. For example
when the help text for IsPrime says that the form of the call is
'IsPrime( <n> )' this means that you should actually enter the IsPrime(
and ), without the quotes, but replace the n with the number (or
expression) that you want to test. In the printed manual this text is
printed in a monospaced (all characters have the same width) typewriter
font.
"text"
Text enclosed in double quotes is used for cross references to other parts of the manual. So the text inside the double quotes is the name of another section of the manual. This is used to direct you to other sections that describe a topic or a function used in this section. So for example Abbreviating Section Names is a cross reference to the next section. In the printed manual the text is replaced by the number of the section.
_ and ^
In mathematical formulas the underscore and the caret are used to denote
subscription and superscription. Ordinarily they apply only to the very
next character following, unless a whole expression enclosed in
parentheses follows. So for example x_1^(i+1) denotes the variable x
with subscript 1 raised to the i+1 power. In the printed manual
mathematical formulas are typeset in italics (actually mathitalics) and
subscripts and superscripts are actually lowered and raised.
Longer examples are usually paragraphs of their own that are indented 8
spaces from the left margin, i.e. 4 spaces further than the surrounding
text. Everything on the lines with the prompts gap and , except
the prompts themselves of course, is the input you have to type,
everything else is GAP's response. In the printed manual examples
are also indented 4 spaces and are printed in a monospaced typewriter
font.
gap> ?Format of Sections
Format of Sections ______________________________________ Environment
This section describes the format of sections when they are displayed
on the screen and the special conventions used.
...
GAP 3.4.4