Skip to content

Avoid dependency on the SmallGrp package - #30

Merged
margollo merged 1 commit into
masterfrom
mh/no-smallgrp
Aug 1, 2026
Merged

Avoid dependency on the SmallGrp package#30
margollo merged 1 commit into
masterfrom
mh/no-smallgrp

Conversation

@fingolfin

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member

HeLP uses CharacterTable(SmallGroup(1,1)) as the initial value of the global variable HeLP_CT, in two places:

  • lib/HeLP_internal_no_solving.gi:5, which is executed at load time
  • lib/HeLP_no_solving.gi:54, inside HeLP_Reset

Because of the first one, HeLP cannot even be loaded when the SmallGrp package is unavailable:

gap> LoadPackage("help");
Error, the Small Groups library is required but not installed

SmallGroup(1,1) is just the trivial group, so this replaces both uses with TrivialGroup(). That is likewise a pc group, and the two character tables agree on Irr, OrdersClassRepresentatives and ClassNames. The documentation of HeLP_Reset is updated accordingly.

With this change HeLP no longer uses any function from SmallGrp, PrimGrp or TransGrp.

Testing

  • gap --bare -c 'LoadPackage("GAPDoc");' + LoadPackage("help" : OnlyNeeded) + TestPackage("help") — now passes; previously failed at load.
  • Normal run with full package autoload — passes, no differences.
  • HeLP_Reset additionally exercised by hand; it is also covered by tst/no_solver.tst.

Context

This comes out of gap-system/gap#2434, which aims to make GAP and its packages work when PrimGrp/SmallGrp/TransGrp are not installed. HeLP showed up in a PackageDistro CI experiment that runs package test suites under gap --bare.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

HeLP used `CharacterTable(SmallGroup(1,1))` as the initial value of the
global variable `HeLP_CT`, once at load time and once in `HeLP_Reset`.
The load time use means HeLP cannot even be loaded when the SmallGrp
package is not available, e.g. in a GAP started with `--bare`.

`SmallGroup(1,1)` is just the trivial group, so use `TrivialGroup()`
instead; it likewise is a pc group, and the resulting character tables
agree on `Irr`, `OrdersClassRepresentatives` and `ClassNames`.

With this, HeLP no longer uses any function from SmallGrp, PrimGrp or
TransGrp.

See gap-system/gap#2434

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@codecov

codecov Bot commented Jul 28, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 67.91%. Comparing base (df5ee28) to head (159eaa3).

Additional details and impacted files
@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##           master      #30   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   67.91%   67.91%           
=======================================
  Files           7        7           
  Lines        2537     2537           
=======================================
  Hits         1723     1723           
  Misses        814      814           
Files with missing lines Coverage Δ
lib/HeLP.gd 100.00% <ø> (ø)
lib/HeLP_internal_no_solving.gi 79.96% <100.00%> (ø)
lib/HeLP_no_solving.gi 48.80% <100.00%> (ø)
🚀 New features to boost your workflow:
  • ❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.

@fingolfin

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member Author

@margollo would be great to have this in a new package release :-)

@margollo
margollo merged commit f77337c into master Aug 1, 2026
5 checks passed
@margollo
margollo deleted the mh/no-smallgrp branch August 1, 2026 13:50
@margollo

margollo commented Aug 1, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Collaborator

Will be included, thanks!

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

2 participants