    README file for the `RingsForHomalg' GAP4 package
        
To get the newest version of this GAP 4 package download one of the
archive files
    RingsForHomalg-x.x.tar.gz
    RingsForHomalg-x.x.zoo
    RingsForHomalg-x.x.tar.bz2
    RingsForHomalg-x.x.zip
and unpack it using 
    gunzip RingsForHomalg-x.x.tar.gz; tar xvf RingsForHomalg-x.x.tar
respectively
    unzoo -x RingsForHomalg-x.x.zoo
and so on.

(Note that if you use a browser like `netscape' for downloading the
archive file the `gunzip' step above may already be done by the browser,
although the name of your file may still have the misleading `.gz'
extension.)

Do this preferably (but not necessarily) inside the `pkg' subdirectory
of your GAP 4 installation. It creates a subdirectory called `RingsForHomalg'.

This completes the installation of the package.

Testing the package is possible by invoking

ReadPackage( "RingsForHomalg", "maketest.g" );

from within GAP.

You need the computer algebra systems
. Singular (version >= 3-0-4): executable -> Singular
. Macaulay (version >= 1.2): executable -> M2
. MAGMA (version >= 2.14): executable -> magma
. Maple (version >= 9 (not 9.5)): executable -> maple
. Sage (version >= 4.1.1): executable -> sage
with their executables in the global PATH to run the tests.

Under MacOSX you can only use Maple9 in conjunction with IO_ForHomalg
as it is the last version (apart from the unusable Maple9.5) with
the command-line-interface cmaple. The package MapleForHomalg
of Thomas Bächler gives another alternative but for it you need a
Maple as an Intel(R) or universal binary.

E-mail me if there are any questions, remarks, suggestions. Also, I
would like to hear about applications of this package.


Mohamed Barakat, e-mail: mohamed.barakat@.rwth-aachen.de 
