You might be lucky enough if someone has it to lend it to you.  I don't believe Maple sells out of date software and they don't back port or support older software once a new version has been released so I'm sure someone wouldn't mind selling it to you or even giving it to you, it's up to you to work it out.  Maybe Maple would sell you a copy, if it still had one but I doubt it.  It wouldn't hurt to give Maplesoft a call.  I believe I asked about buying older versions of maple a while ago (although I didn't contact maplesoft) the general census was to obtain it from someone who was willing to sell it or give it to you. 

I do not own a MAC so I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help.  The other option is to use a Windows version 8 and use it through MAC's windows emulator but then I don't even have a windows version of Maple 8 so I can't help you with that either. 

Maple 8 is fairly old but I still believe quite useful, you would be lucky enough to find it somewhere.  I recall maybe seeing something a few years ago but to find it somewhere today ... maybe a prof has a dusty copy on their shelf they're willing to part with?

Just last year I saved Mathematica 2 on floppies + instruction manuals from waste doom (never used it and now that I think of it I'll probably even get rid of it myself). 

Good Luck!

I tried the cat operator ||

seq(is(convert(p || i, string) = "p||i"), i = 1 .. 7)
                                                   false, false, false, false, false, false, false

hmm, didn't quite work however the cat command can work here where the cat operator fails

seq(is(convert(p || i, string) = cat("p", i)), i = 1 .. 7)
                                                 false, false, true, true, true, true, true

Now, I can use this in our if to test the variable against itself

[seq(`if`(is(convert(p||i,string)=cat("p",i))=false,p||i,NULL),i=1..7)]
                                                   [sin(x), 46]

So I have found one way, maybe there is a better way?  And is there a way to get the cat operator || to work in this situation?

 **edit - add**  I don't know why I didn't think the cat operator || wouldn't work, all I had to do was shift the quotes
seq(is(convert(p || i, string) = "p"||i), i = 1 .. 7)
                         false, false, true, true, true, true, true

What I was really implying here was getting the cat operator || to work inside the quotes.  The backslash escape character \ doesn't work as I thought so maybe it's not possible the way I am thinking, the other method is fine.  Unless there is a way let me know.

If absolutely nothing works ie 2+2; produces nothing, then it's most likely Maple's kernel isn't connected properly or it hasn't been fully installed properly.

A number of ways exist

a:=Matrix(4,7,rand(1..25)):

op(a) #extracts information about the variable a, the first two elements carrying the size information extracted by op(a)[1]; and op(a)[2]; or op(a)[1..2]; however you prefer.

b:=rtable_dims(a); #will also extract the dimensions 
               b:= 1..4 , 1..7
from which you can extract the value you wish using op

op(b[1])[2];
                      4

op(b[2])[2];
                      7

with(ArrayTools):  #package contains tools for doing exactly what you ask
Size(a);
             [ 4  7 ]

There may also exist other ways.
             

I think I see.  So do you mean like this?

a:=solve ( ode2 , { diff(phi(z),z) } ); # notice the extra brackets around the diff part

The brackets will include the diff part on the left hand side of your answers which you want.  Of course you'll end up with brackets around your a[1] ... so op(a[1]) will remove them for you if you want. 

Not too sure on the order, usually the order is smallest to largest but it's also ordered lexicographically.  Someone else could present a situation that might be ordered differently.  I suppose you mean with changing initial conditions on the ode?  By running the program would you still get the same order?  Not exactly sure what you mean there. 

okay looking further into it I managed to almost figure it out .. I think

showstat(SHA)  views the top level part of the code

whithin showstat(SHA) we can see that it points to deeper levels of the code such as SHA1, SHA2 and ModuleApply which we can show by using

showstat(SHA[SHA1]) etc..

print(SHA[SHA1]) reveals a little more slightly different info as to what lies in the code such as Initialize, ModuleApply and ProcessChunk which we can further reveal by doing

print(SHA[SHA1][ProcessChunk]) etc...

I think I covered it but any other insights would be most helpful.

One way is to use the same method you would in choosing the first element in a list.

For example

a:=solve(x^2+4x-2,x)
                                    a:=-2 + sqrt(6) , -2 - sqrt(6)
a[1]
                           -2 + sqrt(6)

For what it's worth, to do this without loading any packages.  You could do this

Extracting row 3

A[3,..]

Extracting column 3

A[..,3]

Works for me in Maple 12

You probably don't have your Maple tabs opened in new windows.  And make sure you aren't mixing any two  combinations of crtl-alt-shift by mistake.  Sorry I had to say that, but it's been done before.  Just eliminating the possibilities, even the simplest of ones, but it should work.

Perhaps this is what you seek? 

Analysis of an Aircraft Turbojet - http://www.maplesoft.com/applications/view.aspx?SID=3768 

@erik10 

It is odd that specifying a range too large reduces the number of solutions found.  It is almost as if we should specify a higher numpoints value which isn't allowed anyway.

Why do we need to specify a range?  Leaving out the range, Maple finds all 4 solutions.

writeto

See here for a similar question http://www.mapleprimes.com/questions/41036-Is-There-A-Way-To-Save-Results-To-File

If you mean the standard maple gui interface, and initially typing it in you can't delete say a middle row of piecewise function and get the bracket to shrink.

You need to go to the very last condition in your piecewise (or your graphical Matrix insert) at the end and backspace to shrink your paranthesis on the piecewise or bracket on the Matrix.  Other than that I don't think there exists a simple set of shortcut keys to delete a row.

Higher spacestep values are needed for piecewise boundary conditions.  In this case here spacestep=500 is needed for a comparable plot to the one shown by Matlab in the slide presentation.

It could be that I need to include a method type in the pdsolve? 

** edit - Actually I didn't take spacestep far enough.  spacestep=1/80 produces a nice smooth graph