Toolboxes etc ...

If there is a modern King Solomon mine, then the one site every engineering and scientific netizen should be aware of is:

http://www.netlib.org

Whether or not SDX is your modeling and simulation engine, netlib, with its billion+ lines of source code, is the fuel depot that will keep you powered along with the millions who already veni-vidi-vici before you. Building solutions with your creativity and pocketbook unhindered by the "politics" of proprietary black boxes is not fiction but reality right at your fingertips. Here's a preview to help you efficiently navigate to your problem solving destination:

------- quick partial summary of netlib contents ---------



• a - numerical approximation algorithms
• alliant - set of programs collected from Alliant users
• amos - Bessel functions of complex argument and nonnegative order
• apollo - set of programs collected from Apollo users
• bihar - biharmonic equation in rectangular geometry and polar coordinates
• blas - basic linear algebra subprograms
• cephes - special functions and IEEE floating point arithmetic in C
• clapack - C version of lapack
• conformal - conformal mapping
• contin - continuation, limit points
• dierckx - spline fitting on various geometries
• eispack - matrix eigenvalues and eigenvectors
• f2c - Fortran to C converter
• fishpack - finite differences for separable elliptic pdes
• fitpack - splines under tension
• fftpack - fast Fourier transforms of periodic and other symmetric sequences
• fn - special functions
• go - "golden oldies" widely used, but not in standard libraries
• hompack - nonlinear equations by homotopy method
• itpack - iterative linear system solvers
• jakef - automatic differentiation of Fortran subroutines
• lapack - solving the most common problems in numerical linear algebra
• laso - Lanczos program for eigenvalues of sparse matrices
• linpack - linear equations and linear least squares problem solvers
• mds - multi dimensional scaling
• microscope - system for checking discontinuity of interpolation schemes
• minpack - nonlinear equations and nonlinear least squares
• misc - everything else collected over time
• napack - numerical algebra and optimization programs
• netlib - items pertaining to the netlib system itself
• ode - initial and boundary value ordinary differential equation solvers
• odepack - ordinary differential equations package
• odrpack - orthogonal distance regression
• opt - nonlinear optimization and zero finding
• pchip - hermite cubics
• pdes - a multigrid partial differential equation package
• pltmg - elliptic pdes in general regions of the plane
• pppack - splines
• quadpack - univariate quadrature
• random - random number generators
• research - tools from Bell Labs, Computing Science Research Center
• scilib - portable version of Cray "scilib" of scientific application routines
• sequent - software from the Sequent Users Group
• slap - iterative methods for symmetric and unsymmetric sparse linear systems
• slatec - comprehensive mathematical and statistical software package (1400+ routines)
• specfun - portable special functions
• toeplitz - linear systems in Toeplitz or circulant form
• toms - collected algorithms of the ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software
• transform - FFT and other signal processing tools
• uncon - unconstrained optimization
• vanhuffel - efficient total least squares by partial svd
• vfftpack - vectorized FFT version of fftpack

The netlib site has built-in services that even FedEx can't match. If you know what you're looking for send mail to: netlib@netlib.org

with a variety of request options in the subject line.

For instance:

* the full index for netlib site

send index

* the full index for a particular library

send index from slatec

* a particular routine and all it depends on

send praxis from opt

* just the one routine, not subsidiaries

send only svd from eispack

* dependency tree, but excluding a subtree

send dgeco but not dgefa from linpack

* keyword search for netlib software

find polynomial fit

You might ask how to find and extract a piece of software when you don't know its name? The answer lies within a netlib companion site - Guide to Available Mathematical Software - at:

• http://gams.nist.gov

which will step you through the problem classification tree until you find the solver(s) to your problem.

Note: As you explore the vast expanse of knowledge accumulated over the years you're bound to recognize who was busy translating netlib into proprietary toolboxes. With these resources you can eliminate dependencies on costly "upgrade cycles" while taking control over what's inside your solution -- and how to fix or improve it when needed.

------- Additional web resources -------



• expokit - matrix exponentials
• port - Bell Labs scientific library
• starpac - NIST statistical data analysis package

More resources coming ... stay tuned!