<Chapter Label=
"Introduction"><Heading>Introduction</Heading>
<Section Label=
"Aims"><Heading>General aims</Heading>
The overall aim of <Package>QPA</Package> is to provide computational
tools in basic research in mathematics (algebra). It seeks to furnish
users within and outside the area of representation theory of finite
dimensional algebras with a computational software package that will
help in exploring a problem and testing conjectures. As with all
software development, new ideas and question will arise. The ability
to study and compute examples will help in proving or disproving
well-established questions/conjectures. Furthermore, it will enable
us to consider new examples which were not accessible by hand or other
means before. In this way, we hope that <Package>QPA</Package> will
aid in the development, not only of the area of representation theory
of finite dimensional algebras, but also of a broad variety of other
areas of mathematics, where such structures occur. In addition we
aspire to create a research environment for international cooperation
on computational representation theory of finite dimensional algebras.
</Section>
<Section Label=
"Installation"><Heading>Installation and system requirements</Heading>
Since the release of GAP
version 4.7.8, the package
<Package>QPA</Package> is distributed with GAP, so if you download
this
version or any later
version of GAP, the package
<Package>QPA</Package> will be installed at the same time as GAP is
installed. Follow the instructions for installing GAP on the web page
<
URL>
https://www.gap-system.org/Download/index.html</
URL>
After having successfully started GAP, give the command
<Example>
gap> LoadPackage(
"qpa");
</Example>
which loads QPA and you can start using QPA.<P/>
One can also clone the QPA git repository from
<List>
<Item><
URL>
https://github.com/gap-packages/qpa</
URL></Item>
</List>
to follow the QPA development. Follow the instructions on
<List>
<Item><
URL>
https://folk.ntnu.no/oyvinso/QPA/</
URL></Item>
</List>
to install QPA by cloning the the git repository.
</Section>
</Chapter>
