Re: [Boost-users] Bessel and Hypergeometric functions wanted, was: (no subject)

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] Bessel and Hypergeometric functions wanted, was: (no subject)
From: John Maddock (boost.regex_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-03-19 04:38:30

>> 2.  Does Boost plan to have hypergeometric functions in the future?
>>
> I've only found hypergeometric distributions:
> http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_48_0/libs/math/doc/sf_and_dist/html/math_toolkit/dist/dist_ref/dists/hypergeometric_dist.html

Right, I've deliberately avoided hypergeometetic functions, because, 
although they're theoretically attractive - you can represent anything as a 
hypergeometric after all - they're pretty much untestable (domain of 
functions with >3 args is too great for any kind of coverage), and except 
for the trivial use cases, the "obvious" implementations either don't 
converge or aren't numerically stable.  In other words it's better to stick 
with more "special" special functions with a more limited domain that can 
actually be tested/implemented in a reasonably comprehensive manner.

What was the use case for the hypergeometrics BTW - was it to implement a 
special function that we don't otherwise have?

HTH, John.