

         Forms  --- Sesquilinear and Quadratic

                        John Bamberg
                        Jan De Beule
                     (Ghent University)              

This package provides:

-  A way to create and use sesquilinear and quadratic forms on 
   finite vector spaces.

-  An operation which finds an isometry between two forms of the same type

-  An operation which returns the forms left invariant by a matrix group.

For further information see:
   http://cage.ugent.be/geometry/forms.php

INSTALLATION AND DEPENDENCIES

Just unpack one of the archives in the "pkg" subdirectory of your GAP 
installation. The archive is available in several formats:

   forms-x.y.tar.gz  
   forms-x.y-win.zip 
   forms-x.y.tar.bz2

Unpacking generates a subdirectory "forms". Then you can load the package
by typing in the GAP command line "LoadPackage("forms");". All documentation and
examples are included.

If typing "LoadPackage("forms");" results in the error message "fail", then
probably the dependencies are not satisfied. Forms has only two dependencies, it
requires GAP version at least 4.4 and it requires the package "GAPDoc" version
at least 0.99. 

You can get the latest version of GAPDoc at the website

http://www.gap-system.org/Packages/gapdoc.html

Installing "GAPDoc" is as easy as installing "Forms".

INSTALLATION *outside the GAP main directory*: When you don't have access to
the directory of your main GAP installation you can also install the package(s)
by unpacking inside a directory "MYGAPDIR/pkg", where "MYGAPDIR" is any path in
your home directory that you have acces to. 

To use packages installed in "MYGAPDIR/pkg", do not forget to start gap with the
extra option '-l ";MYGAPDIR"'.

For questions or comments on the "Forms" package, write to John Bamberg or Jan
De Beule at

   bamberg@cage.ugent.be or jdebeule@cage.ugent.be

Have a lot of fun!

The authors,



John Bamberg and Jan De Beule
