Introduction The &Utils; package provides a space for utility functions from a variety of &GAP; packages to be collected together into a single package. In this way it is hoped that they will become more visible to other package authors. This package was first distributed as part of the &GAP; 4.8.2 distribution.

The package is loaded with the command
gap> LoadPackage( "utils" );

Functions have been transferred from the following packages: Conversion of a &GAP; group to a &Magma; output string, taken from various sources including other.gi in the main library.

Transfer is complete (for now) for functions from the following packages: &AutoDoc; (with function names changed); &ResClasses; ; &RCWA; ; &XMod; .

The package may be obtained either as a compressed `.tar` file or as a `.zip` file, utils-version_number.tar.gz, by ftp from one of the following sites: the &Utils; GitHub release site: https://gap-packages.github.io/utils/. any &GAP; archive, e.g. https://www.gap-system.org/Packages/packages.html; GitHub repository The package also has a GitHub repository at: https://github.com/gap-packages/utils.

Once the package is loaded, the manual `doc/manual.pdf` can be found in the documentation folder. The `html` versions, with or without &MathJax;, may be rebuilt as follows:

gap> ReadPackage( "utils", "makedoc.g" );

It is possible to check that the package has been installed correctly by running the test files (which terminates the &GAP; session):

gap> ReadPackage( "utils", "tst/testall.g" ); Architecture: . . . . . testing: . . . . . . . . #I No errors detected while testing

Note that functions listed in this manual that are currently in the process of being transferred are only read from the source package &Home; (say), and so can only be used if &Home; has already been loaded. There are no such functions in transition at present.
Information for package authors A function (or collection of functions) is suitable for transfer from a package &Home; to &Utils; if the following conditions are satisfied. The function is sufficiently non-specialised so that it might be of use to other authors. The function does not depend on the remaining functions in &Home; The function does not do what can already be done with a &GAP; library function. Documentation of the function and test examples are available. When there is more than one active author of &Home;, they should all be aware (and content) that the transfer is taking place.

Authors of packages may be reluctant to let go of their utility functions. The following principles may help to reassure them. (Suggestions for more items here are welcome.) A function that has been transferred to &Utils; will not be changed without the approval of the original author. The current package maintainer has every intention of continuing to maintain &Utils;. In the event that this proves impossible, the &GAP; development team will surely find someone to take over. Function names will not be changed unless specifically requested by &Home;'s author(s) or unless they have the form HOME_FunctionName. In order to speed up the transfer process, only functions from one package will be in transition at any given time. Hopefully a week or two will suffice for most packages. Any package author who transfers a function to &Utils; will become an author of &Utils;. (In truth, &Utils; does not have authors, just a large number of contributors.)

The process for transferring utility functions from &Home; to &Utils; is described in Chapter .