Maple does not evaluate

>Re( (2-I*X)^4) ),  assuming((X, realcons)

or

>assume(X, realcons);

> Re( (2-I*X)^4) );

Why do these simple expression return unevealuated?

When I call up a Help page I see mostly boxes with question marks inside. If I copy the page into Word I get a badly formatted document in Canbria font. On other pages I get a font drop down box that indicates the page is in DejaVu Sans font and if I then change that to some font on my system (MAC 10.12.1) I get a perfectly readable document. Is there some preference, startup code or setting I can change to fix this annoyance?

The following program hangs on the last command and a hard restart is required. The computation of a 2 x 2 matrix times a 2-vector is not that hard. Any ideas as to what is happening?

Another question: if v is a vector that depends on x and y say why does
>solve(v=0,{x,y})
not work?

It should only take a few lines of code to change v=0 to the system {components of v = 0}

Frequently a variable appears in an expression but not in the result, e.g., there is no x in int(sin(x),x=0..3). How do I tell that to Maple? I am trying to solve (numerically) an ODE of the form
x^2 y'' + alpha(x) y' +   beta(y) = 0. However, alpha(x) has an integral in its defintion whose upper limit is x. Maple demands that I list the dummy variable of the integral as a parameter. How do I deal with that? BTW, Maple has no problem with plot (alpha(x), x=0..6) for example.

I have 2 questions.

1) The help pages discuss the use of functions described by piecewise when using dsolve. The examples are clear enough but nothing is said about using the numeric option and piecewise. I get an error message for a very simple example: y' +R(t) y^2 = 0. Are I correct in assuming that dsllve numeric cannot deal with piecwise continuous functions?

2) I tried to solve a system of 2 second order constant coefficient linear ODEs using dsolve. After a very long wait (over an hour) I gave up. I tried again using "method=laplace" and got an instant answer. I did not bother to mention it here but it occurred again, this time with a fourth order and second order constant coefficient system. Very strange! I know that the laplace transform is a very useful tool; shouldn't Maple also know that?