It depends on how you want to use them. Basically, there are two ways I can think of:

• External Calling: see ?define_external
• Calling an executable: see ?ssystem and ?process[launch], e.g.

Depending on the application, it might be preferrable to have Maple generate Fortran 77 source code and use that in your programs. In that case, please see ?CodeGeneration.

This feature had been added in Maple 9. Quoting from ?updates,Maple9,graphics: "The following three plotting routines have been updated to allow a list of curves or surfaces as input: plot3d, plots[implicitplot], and plots[implicitplot3d].". The example directly above that text already uses the new feature, just like your example does. I don't have Francis Wright's book on my shelf, but according to his book homepage he used Maple 6 (and later Maple 7).

My recommendation on this topic is to work through the worksheet that you can open via ?examples,LinearAlgebraMigration. It's lengthy, but it's well worth the effort.

Maple has the same printf family of commands that you find in C, with some additional features such as the %a format specifier. If that's not what you want, take a look at interface(displayprecision) and/or its equivalent menu entry in the Tools > Options > Precision tab. To tell why Maple outputs 0, we would have to see your actual code and input.