Here are some known bugs in Maple V Release 3, with suggestions for
working around those bugs.  Often the bugs are specific to particular
platforms.

1. Bug symptom: 'minimize' and 'maximimize' return incorrect results.
   Platforms affected: All
   Work-around: Use first-derivative, second-derivative, and boundary
     tests to extract and compare the minima/maxima values for your function.
   Description: There are several bugs in these routines, and at this
     time any result from them should be considered highly suspect.

2. Bug symptom: 'int' may sometimes have an incorrect sign in results of
     definite integration.
   Platforms affected: All
   Work-around: Make sure you are using the newest Maple library patches.
   Description: Some bugs in the Maple integration libraries were found
     after Maple V Release 3 became available.  The most obvious problem
     was that the result of a definite integration could be reported as
     negative value instead of the correct corresponding positive value
     (ie: the correct result was -1 times the value Maple returned).
     WMS has released patches to fix the problem.  The Athena installation
     of Maple usually contains the most recent patch.  If you have your own
     copy of Maple make sure you have the most recent patch if you spot any 
     integration bugs.  The command:

	> interface(patchlevel);

     will tell you the number of the patch you have installed.

3. Bug symptom: 'loglogplot' sometimes generates an error.
   Platforms affected: Unix platforms, probably all platforms
   Work-around: Unknown.  Use other plotting routines instead.
   Description: Sometimes the 'loglogplot' routine will generate an
     error message "Error, (in plot/logaxes) cannot evaluate boolean".

4. Bug symptom: The 'labels' option doesn't work when used with the
     'implicitplot3d' routine.
   Platforms affected: All
   Work-around: Use the 'labels' option with the 'display3d' routine, eg:
     > with(plots):
     > p := implicitplot3d(x^2+y^2+z^2=1,x=-1..1,y=-1..1,z=-1..1,axes=boxed):
     > display3d(p,labels=[X,Y,Z]);
   Description: The 'implicitplot3d' routine does not correctly modify the
     PLOT3D data structure to include the specified labels for the axes.

5. Bug symptom: Information on the 'gap' option missing in the help page
     for the 'matrixplot' routine.
   Platforms affected: All
   Work-around: None, but here is what the option does:
     The option gap is used with the histogram option to specify the size
     of the gap between the bars of the histogram.  Plot the examples from
     the help page with various different values for gap to see the
     difference between them.  It is easier to observe the differences if
     you view the graph from the top as opposed to the standard side
     perspective.  Gap 0 gives no gap, gap 0.25 gives more of a gap, and
     0.5 gives the largest size gap.
   Description: The 'matrixplot' help page indicates the existence of
     a 'gap' option, but doesn't indicate what the option actually does.

6. Bug symptom: 'unapply' gives incorrect results for composed operators.
   Platforms affected: All
   Workaround: Unknown
   Description: If you try something like:
       > unapply(x(y(y)), y);
     you get a result:
        (2)
       x
     which is incorrect.  A correct result would be something like:
       y -> x(y(y))
     There are other aspects to this bug that appear if you use quotes
     in various ways to delay evaluation of parts of the above statement.

7. Bug symptom: 'plot3d' doesn't work on the SGI.
   Platforms affected: SGI
   Workaround: Unknown
   Description: When you try to use 'plot3d' on the SGI, sometimes nothing
     appears to happen (ie: the plot window doesn't appear).  It is likely
     that some of the other plotting routines have the same problem.  What
     is actually happening is that the process driving the plot window has
     died and possibly dumped a core file.  This is because Maple was built
     for SGI IRIX 4.0, but we are using the SGI IRIX 5.2 operating system.
     As a result the dynamic libraries are a bit different, and some features
     (like plotting) won't perform reliably.  There is nothing we can do
     about this until WMS comes out with a version of Maple built for
     IRIX 5.2.

8. Bug symptom: Sometimes plot windows don't appear when using the Linux
     version of Maple through the AFS client.
   Platforms affected: Linux
   Workaround: Get an updated version of the AFS client for Linux.
   Description:
     This isn't a Maple bug, it is a problem with older versions of the
     AFS client that was developed for Linux.  Contact linux-help@mit.edu
     for more information.

9. Bug symptom: Maple can't find the drivers for creating plot windows
     when using the Linux version of Maple installed locally on a machine.
   Platforms affected: Linux
   Workaround: Use "chmod a+rx" on all the executable Maple binaries.
   Description:
     If you install the Linux Maple locally on the hard drive of your machine,
     and use the various Maple startup scripts from the maple locker, Maple
     may not be able to find the programs that it loads to create plot
     windows.  This is because the Maple startup scripts contain an "exec"
     call, and "exec" works a little differently under Linux.  You need
     to have the read and execute permission bits set correctly on the files
     so that Maple can load them.

10. Bug symptom: Vertical range arguments don't work in 'animate'
    Platforms affected: All
    Workaround: Use the 'display' routine with the 'view' option to
      modify the vertical range that will be displayed in the animation.
    Description:
      The Maple help implies that 'animate' will let you provide a third
      range argument which will be used to indicate the vertical range to
      which the function(s) should be restricted when plotted.  It doesn't
      work.  You should be able to do something like:
	> animate( x-x^3/u, x=0..Pi/2,u=1..16,y=0..1);
      but this will generate an error message.  To restrict the vertical
      range you can do something like:
	> display(animate( x-x^3/u, x=0..Pi/2,u=1..16),view=[0..Pi/2,0..1]);
      This may in fact not be a bug in 'animate', but a flaw in the wording
      of the help page.  The 'animate3d' routine also won't let you provide
      an additional range argument for restricting the display vertically,
      so the routines do behave in a consistent way.  Note that you can't
      use the 'view' option directly within 'animate', which in itself
      could be argued as a flaw.


last updated: 6/12/95