DISCRETE MATHEMATICS 1.0
                        ------------------------

This file is the place to start looking at the project Discrete Mathematics
(version 1.0) for 'Mathematica' version 3.0 or later. This software is released 
as FREEWARE.

Below you'll find

    1. ABSTRACT
    2. THE FILES YOU SHOULD GET
    3. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
    4. INSTALLING DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
    5. LIMITATIONS
    6. REFERENCES
    7. DISCLAIMER

---

Further enquires should be addressed to:

Geoff.H.Smith@uts.edu.au
Nicolae.Nicorovici@uts.edu.au

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1. ABSTRACT
-----------

The aim of this self-learning package is to use the software package
'Mathematica', to understand certain aspects of discrete mathematics.
The project is divided into three main modules, namely:

  - set theory,
  - functions,
  - logic and truth tables.

The use of 'Mathematica' in 'Graph Theory', which is also part of 'Discrete 
Mathematics', has been extensively explained by Steven Skiena in the book
"Implementing Discrete Mathematics: Combinatorics and Graph Theory with 
Mathematica" (Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1990). This is the best 
guide for the standard package DiscreteMath`Combinatorica` included in the 
standard distribution of 'Mathematica'. 


2. THE FILES YOU SHOULD GET
---------------------------

On the diskette you should find the following items:

    discretemaths.exe   Self-extracting archive
    readme.txt          This file
    smith.pdf           A conference paper about Discrete Mathematics


3. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
----------------------

    Operating system    WINDOWS 9x, NT, ME, 2000, XP
    Other requirements  Mathematica version 3.0 or later


4. INSTALLING DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
----------------------------------

To install the packages close all the applications, and double click
on 'discretemaths.exe' from the diskette. DO NOT CHANGE THE DEFAULT DIRECTORY 
'C:\'. The notebooks and packages will be installed in the directory 'C:\UTS'.
If it does not exist this directory will be created, so if you have a
directory with this name, please change the name of your directory;
in the present form the system does not work on other path. An auxiliary
directory 'C:\temp' will also be created. This directory contains a dummy
file. During the execution a working notebook ('xxx$temp.nb') will be saved
in this directory. The working notebook is deleted when you close the session 
by using the button 'End the Session'.

If you use Mathematica 3.0, to ensure that the windows open correctly use the 
Windows Explorer, open the directory 'C:\UTS\Project', and change to 'Read-only' 
the attributes of ALL the files from this directory. This is not necessary for
Mathematica 4.x.

Then, start 'Mathematica' and open 'main.nb' from the directory
'C:\UTS\Project'. In all the cases when Mathematica opens a window with
different remarks about the notebooks, or asking about initialization
cells, or saving a notebook, click on 'OK', or 'Yes', or 'Don't Save'.
To end the session, ALWAYS click on the red button 'End the Session' located
at the end of main notebook ('main.nb') to restore the Mathematica option
"KernelMessageAction" to its original settings. When the initialization
cell from 'main.nb' is evaluated this option is set to:
"KernelMessageAction"->{"Beep","PrintToConsole"}.


5. LIMITATIONS
--------------

Some known limitations:

- This a first version of our project. It is not fully optimized and we
  are working to improve it.
  
- When you start the exercises for `Random Venn Diagrams' and check your
  answer, the package will also show a hint which, generally, is a
  relatively complicate expression. This is because the package used to
  simplify logical expressions does not always work.

- If the boxes in the notebook for exercises for `Truth Tables' are moved, 
  close the notebook and start again the exercise. Otherwise, the Kernel may 
  start an infinite loop. This also applies in all cases when a notebook for
  exercises does not work.


6. REFERENCES
-------------

1) S. Wolfram, The Mathematica Book, 3rd ed. (Wolfram Media/Cambridge 
   University Press, 1996).

2) R. E. Maeder, Programming in Mathematica, 3rd. ed. (Addison-Wesley, 1997).

3) W. T. Shaw and J. Tigg, Applied Mathematica: getting started, getting it 
   done (Addison-Wesley, 1994).

4) J. W. Gray, Mastering Mathematica: programming, methods and applications, 
   2nd ed. (Academic Press, 1998).

5) M. J. Watson, The package `Logic.m', Electronic Supplement
of Mathematica Journal Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1990).

6) J. M. Novak, Programming the Front End, tutorial given at the 1998
   Worldwide Mathematica Conference.

7) P. J. Hinton, Button Box HOW-TO: Making a Graphics Generator, tutorial 
   (MathSource/Tutorials).

This project has been supported by a 1998 National Teaching Development
Grant. Helpful suggestions from P. Abbott, W. Austin and C. Uden are also
acknowledged.


7. DISCLAIMER
------------- 

THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE DISTRIBUTED "AS IS" AND
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. NO REPONSIBILITIES
FOR POSSIBLE DAMAGES OR EVEN FUNCTIONALITY CAN BE TAKEN. THE USER MUST 
ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THIS PROGRAM.