Date:           21 Mar 94 15:49 +0100
From: A E Caranti <caranti@volterra.science.unitn.it>

Dear gap-forum,

Harald Boegeholz writes:

I'd like to know if there is a way to save the current state of GAP in
a file, i.e., the contents of some or all variables. I am doing some
lengthy calculations and would like to save the results for later use.
Unfortunately, the printed representation of most objects is not
enough to recreate the object.

Actually, this question arose in the forum already some time ago, and
Martin gave a similar answer. There was something in the ensuing
discussion (I cannot remember whether it was Werner Nickel or Joachim
Neubueser who mentioned it) that I found very useful. Namely, one can
use GNU 'screen' utility to save (screen's word for it is 'detach') a
GAP session, say, and resume it exactly as it was later, even having
logged out.

Yes, thanks. I am already using screen. The problem is that we do have
occasional power failures (once a month?). Another problem is that
playing around with GAP can corrupt data structures. If you interrupt
a lengthy calculation you can not be sure that the data structures are
still consistent. So for playing around it would be very useful to be
able to save the current state of GAP.

I am looking forward to seeing the implementation of this in a future
version of GAP.

hwb
--
Harald Boegeholz | hwb@mathematik.uni-stuttgart.de
| os2a@info2.rus.uni-stuttgart.de