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# 75 Replaced and Removed Command Names

### Sections

1. Group Actions - Name Changes
2. Package Interface - Obsolete Functions and Name Changes
3. Normal Forms of Integer Matrices - Name Changes
4. Miscellaneous Name Changes or Removed Names

In general we try to keep GAP 4 compatible with former releases as much as possible. Nevertheless, from time to time it seems appropriate to remove some commands or to change the names of some commands or variables. There are various reasons for that: Some functionality was improved and got another (hopefully better) interface, names turned out to be too special or too general for the underlying functionality, or names are found to be unintuitive or inconsistent with other names.

In this chapter we collect such old names while pointing to the sections which explain how to substitute them. Usually, old names will be available for several releases; they may be removed when they don't seem to be used any more.

## 75.1 Group Actions - Name Changes

The concept of a group action is sometimes referred to as a ``group operation''. In GAP 3 as well as in older versions of GAP 4 the term `Operation` was used instead of `Action`. We decided to change the names to avoid confusion with the term ``operation'' as in `DeclareOperation` and ``Operations for Xyz''.

Here are some examples of such name changes.

         OLD                                 NOW USE

         Operation                           Action
         RepresentativeOperation             RepresentativeAction
         OperationHomomorphism               ActionHomomorphism
         FunctionOperation                   FunctionAction

## 75.2 Package Interface - Obsolete Functions and Name Changes

With GAP 4.4 the package interface was changed. Thereby some functions became obsolete and the names of some others were made more consistent.

The following functions are no longer needed: `DeclarePackage`, `DeclareAutoPackage`, `DeclarePackageDocumentation` and `DeclarePackageAutoDocumentation`. They are substituted by entries in the `PackageInfo.g` files, see Ext:The PackageInfo.g File.

The following function names were changed.

         OLD                                 NOW USE

         RequirePackage                      LoadPackage
         ReadPkg                             ReadPackage
         RereadPkg                           RereadPackage
         CreateCompletionFilesPkg            CreateCompletionFilesPackage

## 75.3 Normal Forms of Integer Matrices - Name Changes

Former versions of GAP 4 documented several functions for computing the Smith or Hermite normal form of integer matrices. Some of them were never implemented and it was unclear which commands to use. The functionality of all of these commands is now available with `NormalFormIntMat` (see NormalFormIntMat) and a few interface functions.

## 75.4 Miscellaneous Name Changes or Removed Names

In former releases of GAP 4 there were some global variable names bound to general information about the running GAP (path names, command line options, ...). Although they were not officially documented they were used by several users and in some packages. We mention here `BANNER` and `QUIET`. This type of information is now collected in a record with name `GAPInfo` and will become documented after a test phase.

Here are some further name changes.

         OLD                                 NOW USE

         MonomialTotalDegreeLess             MonomialExtGrlexLess
         NormedVectors                       NormedRowVectors

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GAP 4 manual
December 2008