Re: [boost] Re: Standard Matrix interfaces

From: Jeremy Siek (jsiek_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-08-29 00:04:34

On Tue, 28 Aug 2001, Philipp K. Janert wrote:
janert> i) Basic vector space operations
janert> ================================
janert> There is actually a rather small set of operations
janert> defined on vectors and matrices that might be considered
janert> "standard".

Take a look at what we have so far, check out the matrix_development
branch from boost CVS, and look at this file

libs/numeric/doc/LinearAlgebraConcepts.html

It has most of what you list below, though there are some things still
missing, like 6) and some of 5). Feel free to make suggestions for
additions/changes to the above document!

janert> 1) The usual vector space operations for vectors and matrices
janert> 	(Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division
janert> 	by a scalar)
janert> 2) Vector product, matrix product, matrix times vector
janert> 3) Absolute value of a vector
janert> 4) Transpose, Hermitian conjugate
janert> 5) Creation and Initialization (Unit matrix, Hilbert matrix,
janert> 	zero matrix, ...)
janert> 6) Element access and submatrices, rows and columns
janert>
janert> I would consider it desirable to make these operations
janert> available via operator overloading so that one can write
janert> 	matrix1 + matrix2
janert> etc (for sake of consistency, do as the ints do).
janert>
janert> These five topics about exhaust the general operations!!!
janert>
janert>
janert> iii) Matrix element types
janert> =========================
janert> One thing that I believe would be very beneficial is
janert> to define the requirements for the element types. If one

Agreed. We need good documentation of the "concepts" (ala SGI STL) that
carefully spell out the requirements.

janert>
janert> By the way, is there any active collaboration with OON?
janert> No need to reinvent the wheel...

I sit next Todd Veldhuisen, so it's a bit hard not to collaborate :)

Cheers,
Jeremy

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jeremy Siek                          http://php.indiana.edu/~jsiek/
 Ph.D. Student, Indiana Univ. B'ton   email: jsiek_at_[hidden]
 C++ Booster (http://www.boost.org)   office phone: [phone]
----------------------------------------------------------------------