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Concepts
This section of the documentation covers the use of Objects, Libraries and References, Notations, Styles and Types and how each is created, edited and used in the Sym application.
Library Locations and References
Locations are used to manage groups of libraries and documents. The purpose of locations is to make documents portable from one machine to another. To do that, locations can be online as well as on your local machine. If a document references online libraries, the required libraries will be downloaded automatically when the document is opened.
Public locations
Locations that are public allow you to reference libraries that are available online.

Concepts
This section of the documentation covers the use of Objects, Libraries and References, Notations, Styles and Types and how each is created, edited and used in the Sym application.
- Objects
  An object is the basic building block of all of the symbolic content contained in a document - every term in every symbolic expression in Sym is an instance of an object. Many of the objects used in Sym have an object definition that specifies how the object looks and behaves, but it's also possible to create objects that don't have object definitions. All objects are identified by their name and object names are always defined in a specific namespace. All object definitions contain a type definition. Optionally, objects can also contain Properties, Clauses, Renderings, and a Description.
- Library Locations and References
  Locations are used to manage groups of libraries and documents. The purpose of locations is to make documents portable from one machine to another. To do that, locations can be online as well as on your local machine. If a document references online libraries, the required libraries will be downloaded automatically when the document is opened.
  - Public locations
    Locations that are public allow you to reference libraries that are available online.
  - Local locations
    Local locations are locations on the machine you are currently using. The libraries and documents in local locations can be edited. Public locations refer to documents and libraries located online.
  - Creating public libraries and documents
    The process covered here is used when you want to create new documents and/or libraries that you intend to eventually publish online. To make this process easier, in addition to Local and Public locations, you can create Development locations.
  - Creating a New Library
    The objects and functionality in any document are largely determined by the libraries loaded in that document. You can add new objects, renderings and functionality by creating your own libraries. Libraries are created in locations.
  - Publishing Libraries and Documents in a Location
    The process of publishing the libraries and documents in a location is designed to do two things. First, it lets you put libraries and documents online for easy access just by copying the zip files and an XML file created during publishing to any online location. Second, it allows maintaining multiple versions of a library and makes is possible to reference either the most recent version and any previous versions in a document.
- Notations and Rendering
  The purpose of notations is to make it possible to easily change the way expressions are displayed. Notations are assigned to Document Modules, Unit Test Modules and Object Modules. The notation assigned determines which renderings are selected for each expression in the module.
- Styles
  Each notation refers to a stylesheet. Stylesheets define Styles. Styles are used in two places. First, they can be used to style text. Second, they can be used to style parts of an expression in a rendering. You can create new style and new stylesheets.
- Types
  Every term in every expression in a Sym document has a type assigned to it. Every object definition has a type definition as one of its components. Since type definitions can include things like type variables, Sym uses a type inferencing process to determine the explicit types assigned to each term in every expression.

Public locations

Locations that are public allow you to reference libraries that are available online.

Public locations may be added automatically when you open a document. If the document contains references to public locations that are not in the location list, they are automatically added.

Creating a public location

Open the Location List dialog (Location list... in the Edit menu) and select Add Location. Enter the URL of the online libraries and/or documents. The Test button can be used to verify that the location is valid.

Documents and libraries in public locations can't be edited.

Locations on symbolicware.com

There are several locations available on the symbolicware.com website. The locations currently available include:

Published documents
This location includes a number of example documents. The location is at http:symbolicware.com/Locations/Published/Documents.
Published libraries

This location includes all of the currently published libraries created by SymbolicWare. The location is at http:symbolicware.com/Locations/Published/Libraries.
Prerelease libraries

This location includes several libraries that are still in development including things like Chemistry.eql and Physics.eql. The location is at http:symbolicware.com/Locations/Prerelease/Libraries.

These three locations are added to the location list automatically when the Sym app is installed.