Re: [Help-gsl] sparse matrices (again)

[Brian Gough <bjg at network-theory dot co dot uk>]

At Sun, 6 May 2007 19:18:09 -0400,
James Bergstra wrote:
> Something like this exists as the NIST sparse BLAS:
> http://math.nist.gov/spblas/
> 
> Perhaps the GSL could 
> - include this code (verbatim would make 2800 lines of C), and compile it as
>   libgslspblas.so, to complement libgslcblas.so (I have no idea if licensing
>   would get in the way.)
> - wrap it in a manner similar to gsl_matrix, to provide 
>   - element access
>   - simple stats (min, max, mean)
>   - basic I/O (e.g.  Harwell-Boeing)
>   - vector scatter / gather
>   - matrix-vector multiply, (matrix-matrix multiply?)
> 
> Would these nuts and bolts make progress toward providing sparse solvers though
> the GSL?  Would they be useful to many?

I think the sparse blas is something we could reasonably implement.
It it not too complicated, and it is a standard.  I don't know how
useful it would be in practice, in terms of number of users.

-- 
Brian Gough