Okay, many questions here, maybe someone can answer one or two of them for me?  Can someone show a few simple multi-thread examples that work starting from version Maple 12 ?  Actually what version does multithreading actually really start working to improve calculation times? 

From what I understand the Threads package was introduced in Maple12 so it's almost experimental there.  An example I found using add() and Add() shows a slight...

Can we assign a process to a portion of threads thereby limiting it's use on the cpu?  Or assign a processs that continually runs on a portion of the cpu while retaining the bulk processing power for other tasks other worksheets in Maple?

Fogive me here if I lack understanding:  As an example set aside say 1000 threads for the cpu and let one process run on one thread in the background essentially using only 0.1% processing power and leave the other 999...

This is something simple but I cannot find the answer

Typing in
a:=5;
gives the maple output
                                      a:=5

I have changed a setting somewhere so that Maple doesn't show the assignment

When I type
a:=5;
Maple returns just
 ...

test := proc (value)
  local a, i:
  a := [jack, john, will]:
  for i in a do
    assign('i', value):
  end do:
  print(a);
end proc:

test(5);
                       [jack,john,will]

outside of the proc it works like I want it to

a:=[jack,john,will]
for i in a do
  assign('i',5):

Is there a simple way to assign a single value to multiple variables?

just as an example, instead of labouriously entering a1:=5: a2:=5: a3:=5  ... a40:=5:

This way I present here doesn't work as I thought.

a:=[seq(a||i,i=1..40)]:

for ii in a do
  ii:=5:
end do:

a1;
                 a1

Any suggestions?