[boost] Re: Re: Numerical Integration - continued

From: Dan Mcleran (dan.mcleran_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-10-24 10:07:17

"Matthias Troyer" <troyer_at_[hidden]> wrote in message
news:2822083C-E734-11D6-BF0A-0003939BD83A_at_itp.phys.ethz.ch...
>
> On Thursday, October 24, 2002, at 11:00 AM, Martin Weiser wrote:
>
> > On Mittwoch, 23. Oktober 2002 21:52, Matthias Troyer wrote:
> >> I am confused about the scope of a numerical integration library. It
> >> seems that three things are being mixed up here:
> >>
> >> i) 1D integration of a function with x-points determined by the
> >> algorithm (e.g. Romberg integration)
> >>
> >> ii) Integration of first order ODEs by some algorithm (e.g.
> >> Runge-Kutta)
> >>
> >> iii) Forward Euler integration of an ODE with fixed step witdh delta_x
> >> and values of the derivative, given by some external function.
> >>
> >> While I agree that both i) and ii) would be interesting libraries, the
> >> usage case iii) which seems much discussed does not warrant a separate
> >> library in my opinion.
> >
> > Agreed. Let me add that I think the interface to i) is more or less
> > straightforward, while the interface to ii) is much more complex and
> > less
> > obvious.
>
> I agree fully. One problem for the interface of ii) is that some
> algorithms need more than one starting point. Should this discussion be
> about both topic or should we first focus on the simpler case i)?
>
> Matthias

I would prefer to focus on i) first. I think getting this done would give us
a jump start to go forward onto the more difficult ii) and iii).