
Mint - the Syntax Checker
=========================


The Mint application provides a robust syntax-checking facility for
Maple code files.  You can access Mint from within Windows or OS/2, 
or from the DOS command line.

  Windows and OS/2:   Click on the Mint application icon.

  DOS:   Enter "mint" at the command line prompt.  You can find the 
         executable mint.exe in the bin.win directory.

Type   'CTRL-Z  Enter'  to quit mint.
  
Once inside Mint, you are prompted for the name of the file you want
to pass through the syntax checker.
You may specify the level of information you require by specifing the
following options before the first file name.

    -i0    no information

    -i1    severe error messages only 

    -i2    severe and serious error messages

    -i3    warnings and error messages

    -i4    usage, warning, and error messages

Mint separately displays a report for each procedure in the file
followed by a global report for statements not contained within any
procedure.  If the severity of errors found within a procedure is less
than what info_level specifies, then it does not produce a report for
that procedure.

The classifications for the types of errors and warnings which Mint
finds are severe, serious, and warning.  A severe error is an
undisputable error.  A serious error is almost certainly an error.
However, persons defining procedures as an addition to the Maple
library may choose to ignore these "errors".  Warnings are possible
errors.  They point to constructs which may be correct in some
contexts, but probable errors in other contexts.

List of Parameters:

  To get a list of the parameters that you can pass to Mint, do the
  following:

    Windows:       Start Mint and enter -h in the dialog box.
    DOS and OS/2:  Start Mint from the command line using the
                   command mint -h. 

    The output should read as follows:

    MINT.EXE [-glnpqsSx] [-a...] [-b...] [-d...] [-i...]
      [-t...] [file]

Using Mint Interactively:

  Interactive use of Mint: To use Mint interactively, do not
  enter a filename when entering parameters for mint.

  If you are using the interactive version of Mint (where you
  type in Maple commands for Mint to process), then you can
  quit out of Mint by typing "Ctrl-Z" followed by Enter. Mint will
  then display information about the commands you entered. 

Notes for Windows users:

  Close Mint by choosing the menu item "Close" from the
  system menu of the Mint window.

  In order to store the output of Mint in a file, you must
  use Mint from a DOS session.
  For example: To run Mint on a file called mint_in.txt and
  store the output in a file called mint_out.txt, issue the
  following command from a DOS session:

    mint mint_in.txt > mint_out.txt


For more information on the workings of Mint, refer to the help
page for mint, accessible by issuing the Maple command ?mint.

