# how to begin self study of computational group theory.

Today in class on finite group theory our professor taught us Mathieu groups and so we dealt with Steiner system and similar.

He said from here on you can pursue computational group theory and start using computers to do stuff with bigger groups, like as to find orders of Mathieu groups or to check $S(5,6,12)$ is a Steiner system etc etc. He said that from now many proofs will require mathematical softwares like GAP etc).

As he is old and he is not so much into softwares or computational group theory, can somebody recommend to me where to begin, and what softwares I will need to study computational group theory? Where can I get them and a good book.

I am also not much acquainted with any mathematical softwares, but would like to use the ones which are useful for finite groups self-study.

• I think GAP is quite good place to start. gap-system.org In this site, you can find program itself and manuels tutorials etc. – mesel Sep 24 '14 at 19:16
• are there books on this subject? good ones. – Bhaskar Vashishth Sep 24 '14 at 19:18
• I do not know whether there is a published book, you can check gap-system.org/Doc/doc.html – mesel Sep 24 '14 at 19:22
• I do not think that "As he is old ..." is an appropriate motivation of this question. – Alexander Konovalov Sep 24 '14 at 20:22