MAGNUS 

     A graphically-oriented software system for 
         computational group theory 


 ================================================================

 The MAGNUS  Computational Group Theory Package is an innovative
 symbolic algebra package providing facilities for doing calculations
 in and about infinite groups.  Almost all symbolic algebra systems
 are oriented toward finite computations that are guaranteed to
 produce answers, given enough time and resources.  By contrast,
 MAGNUS is concerned with experiments and computations on infinite
 groups which in some cases are known to terminate, while in others are
 known to be generally recursively unsolvable.



 Features
 ------------

 - A graphical object and method based user interface which  is easy 
  and intuitive to use and naturally reflects the underlying  C++ 
  classes;

 - A kernel comprised of a ``session manager",  to communicate between
  the user interface or front-end and the back-end where computations
  are carried out, and ``computation managers" which direct the
  computations which may involve several algorithms and ``information 
  centers"  where information is stored;

 - Facilities for performing several procedures in parallel and
  allocating resources to each of several simultaneous algorithms
  working on the same problem;

 - Enumerators which generate sizable finite approximations to  both 
  finite and infinite algebraic objects and make it possible  to carry 
  out searches for answers  even when general algorithms may not exist;

 - Innovative genetic algorithms;

 - A package manager to ``plug in" more special purpose algorithms
  written by others;


 Use and Distribution
 --------------------

 Copyright (C) 1994-2005 The New York Group Theory Cooperative

     This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or 
 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (see 
 doc/COPYING file) as published by the Free Software Foundation; 
 either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later 
 version.

     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, 
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU 
 General Public License for more details.

 Documentation and Other Resources
 ---------------------------------

 There is some documentation in the `doc' subdirectory of the
 distribution. As usual, this could be vastly improved.

 MAGNUS is available from

   http://www.grouptheory.org

 There are two contact e-mail addresses:
 - for general comments and suggestions about Magnus send e-mail to: 
      comment@rio.sci.ccny.cuny.edu 
 - bug reports, with a brief description of the group being tested 
 and the tool that was buggy, should be sent to: 
      bug@rio.sci.ccny.cuny.edu 

 Supported Platforms
 -------------------

 MAGNUS can be successfully compiled on Fedora Core 1, 2, and 3
 platforms (gcc versions used are respectively 3.3.2, 3.3.3, and
 3.4.2/4.0.1). A previous version working with gcc 2.95.3 is also
 available.

 MAGNUS has as well been tested on the following platforms:

       FreeBSD 4.11 (gmake and gcc 3.3.2)
       Red Hat / SuSE Linux 2.2 (2.4) (Tcl/Tk 8.x)
              - Should run on other comparable Linuxes as well

       We have old binary releases for Solaris 2.5 and SunOs4.1.3 
 available at http://www.grouptheory.org

 Note that though MAGNUS can be built on Fedora Core 3, it cannot run
 normally when blackbox programs are used. The reason behind this is
 still unclear.

 Installation
 ------------

 Installation is described in the file INSTALL in the this directory.

 History
 -------

 There is a ChangeLog file which describes changes for each MAGNUS' 
 release available in the same directory.