Interrupting a calculation is very useful since intermediate results are meaningful. This is particularly important for calculations which take a long time to complete. One might be satisfied with an intermediate result and decide to terminate a computation before it runs to completion.
The interrupt feature allows the user to interrupt a calculation, examine intermediate results and eventually resume the calculation where it left off, or exit Macaulay.
To interrupt Macaulay on a Macintosh, simply click the mouse button. On all other machines, type (CNTRL)-C.
Interrupting any computation command causes the system to interrupt the computation at the next syzygy or standard basis element computed. In most cases, the user will not have to wait very long for this event to occur. After the interrupt occurs, the user receives a prompt for more input. Any legal Macaulay command can be issued here. For example, the user may want to view a resolution, write it to disk, etc. Caution: using the kill command on any variable while a calculation is interrupted is likely to cause Macaulay to crash!
To resume the calculation, use the continue command. To reset the degree at which to stop, use the chcalc command. To terminate the calculation as well as the Macaulay session, use ``exit all''.