Re: [boost] Quaternions

From: Jason Hise (chaos_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-03-26 16:21:51

Andy Little wrote:

>FWIW boost  boost has a quaternion class
>
>http://www.boost.org/libs/math/quaternion/quaternion.html
>
>Even some preliminary info on rotations:
>
>http://www.boost.org/libs/math/quaternion/HSO3.hpp
>
>Is it possible to reuse Boost.Quaternion in a geometry library or are
>there problems associated with that?
>
Probably, although because it was written with the intention of being a 
mathematical class instead of being a geometry class it appears there 
are some minor details missing.  Namely, the ability to convert from an 
angle and axis of rotation to a unit quaternion and back again, and to 
convert a quaternion to a transformation matrix.  Also, when you know in 
advance that you are only working with unit quaternions (the only valid 
quaternions for storing orientations) you can make certain optimizations 
(the inverse simplifies to the complex conjugate).

-Jason