Dear GAP Forum,

Kurt Ewald asked two questions:

kurt.ewald@balbec.de said:
> wether I can be sure that the first 3 bugfixes are installed getting
> the following message

   Loading the library. Please be patient, this may take a while.
GAP4, Version: 4r2 fix3 of 18-May-2000, i586-pc-cygwin-gcc Components:
 small, small2, small3, small4, small5, small6, small7,
             small8, id2, id3, id4, id5, id6, trans, prim, tbl,
             tom  installed.

The answer here is "yes". The second line of the message includes "fix3",
indicating that bugfix 3 has been applied.

kurt.ewald@balbec.de said:
> Writing programs I am using also global variables, and in the text of
> the program appears

Syntax error: warning: unbound global variable

Is it possible to avoid this message or must I declare global
variables and how to do this.

This message arises if you try and use a global variable in the text of a GAP
function or the body of a loop, and that variable does not have a value when
the function or loop is read into GAP. The message is harmless, it is just a
warning, as, in our experience, this condition often means that a variable
name has been mis-spelled.

If you wish to avoid it, then the easiest thing to do is to assign the global
variables some value before the function is read. For instance, you could put
the following into a file :

if not IsBound( GlobalStuff ) then
GlobalStuff := fail;
fi;

foo := function( arg1, arg2 )
     local loc1, loc2;

....

loc2 := GlobalStuff + 17;

.....
end;

The initial if statement will make sure that GlobalStuff has a value before the
function foo is read.

Steve