If you own a copy of the Mac version of Maple, and have used Maple in Linux, you may know about the command line version of Maple, and have noticed that it is missing in the Mac OS X version. But it is still there, it's just hidden.
To get it, add /Library/Frameworks/Maple.framework/Versions/Current/bin to your PATH (see this page if you don't know how to do this). Then, you can type maple at a command prompt to get the command line version of Maple with all it's ASCII beauty. There are advantages, too. It is much faster to load if you just need to do a quick computation and don't care too much about the appearance of the output.
If the GUI version doesn't work for some reason, such as a Java problem, the command line version will still work fine. There is also a diagnostic version of maple called mint, and an alternative GUI version called xmaple. But most importantly of all, you should at least give it a try to experience the wonders of ASCII 3D plots.
Note: This hint applies to Maple 12. I don't know if things are still this way for Maple 13 or Maple 14.
[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one. I omitted a very nice, but very large, ASCII 3D plot image.]
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100615223829580