[Matrix-SIG] Re: Matrix-SIG digest, Vol 1 #318 - 4 msgs

[Travis Oliphant]

> ...
> Of particular interest to optimisers and structural engineers are
> special solution methods for symmetric matrices. Ng & Peyton's method is
> widely used as part of the package PCx. It is originally coded in
> fortran, but is easy to move to C. I think it unlikely that the sparse
> matrix storage can easily be made fully dynamic as it uses parallel
> vectors representing super nodes etc. The strategy I have used in the
> past when converting fortran is to try and preserve the original
> assertions as elements are added/removed from the sparse matrix. I think
> for a Python module implementing various sparse matrix kinds there ought
> to be a standard API we can plug into.

I actually rather like using Fortran as a low-level language as it is much
easier to wrap (despite SWIG) --- arguments are always pointers to basic
data types in FORTRAN.

> I downloaded SparesPy.tgz, but my winzip falls over with it. Should I
> try under Linux?

I'm not sure what this problem is.  I've heard this before off and on.  I
think there may be a problem with WinZip understanding *.tgz files.  I've
heard that simply renaming the file may help.  But I don't know.  

If somebody knows what's up I'd appreciate hearing about it.

Travis