Abstract
For pt.I see Seiler et al., ibid., vol.28., p.4431 (1995). We study the symplectic approach to first-order systems with constraints from the point of view of the formal theory of differential equations. We concentrate especially on systems without first-class constraints and give a geometric interpretation of an approach recently proposed by Barcelos-Neto and Wotzasek (1992). We further study the numerical properties of this approach. We also comment on some problems concerning the application to field theories.