Hi all,
Many thanks for your comments so far (please keep them coming!). I do
realise that the proposal will probably take a number of specialised
numerical analysts a few months if not years to complete. I'm all for
cutting things down a bit (a lot rather), with an initial focus on the
more classical methods for which efficient algorithms are well
documented and can be implemented relatively easily. Seeing
commons-math as a generic and compact library based on which other
more sophisticated code can be written, I think the following could be
useful:
- performance tuning for matrix computation and add more decomposition
methods
- univariate integration (Romberg is what I have in mind)
- true polynomial interpolation, as opposed to spline, it will be
usually be used by other higher level numerical algorithms e.g.
Romberg integration or other Richardson extrapolation procedures
- univariate minimization
- robust derivative-free multidimensional optimization (downhill
simplex)
- B-spline
- ODE solver
- (maybe?) Gaussian quadratures
and then possibly move to the more ambitious part. At some point I
would also like to add more special functions, and optimise the
performance of existing ones. Please let me know what you think about
this plan.
I am actually a happy user of Colt myself, to me it seems that it
focuses on the data structure side of numerical computation (which it
does an excellent job), what I find it lacks specifically are the
algorithm side of things like root finding, interpolation,
integration, optimization (and possibly) ODE solver, the performance
of some of the special functions also left something to be desired
after they replaced the old IMSL code. There are scattered efforts on
all the things mentioned above, some seem to be quite mature but most
are experimental, I think it would be nice to have them all in one
library (maybe just adapt if license compatible and code reasonably
stable).
As for code quality, I'll make sure I do extensive research into the
literatures and (probably more important) existing implementations in
whatever language before getting my hands on the keyboard, part of the
reason I wanted to start such a project is that when I was doing
coursework, I referenced many books and papers only to realise that
some of the ideas were clearly better than what I was suggested to do
in the project!
Best regards,
Ryan
On 6/3/05, Rory Winston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I agree, it is a hugely ambitious project. Which is not necessarily a bad
> thing. I think a good start would be to qualify the scope of the project
> sooner rather than later, and get a firm idea for exactly what will
> (hopefully) be achieved.
>
> "Jakarta Commons Developers List" <commons-dev@jakarta.apache.org> wrote:
>
> >
> > Questions of scope of Commons-Math aside <gasp>, what is the scope of the
> > summer project? The scope of Ryan's proposal seems mighty ambitious, even
> > if
> > you remove the parts that aren't currently in scope for Commons-Math. If
> > you
> > intend to stay true to Apache's charter, the code will have to be developed
> > firsthand, not copied from any other source, unless the license of the
> > source
> > is compatible or the author(s) are amenable to adding an Apache-compatible
> > alternative license to their code or changing over to an Apache-compatible
> > license. Coding that much from scratch and providing JUnit tests will be a
> > heck of a lot of work (maybe a little onerous if you do TDD). And forgive
> > my
> > skepticism, but code developed for coursework is unlikely to be as
> > bulletproof
> > as the proposal aims for.
> >
> > Also, specifically what parts of the proposal are not already addressed by
> > existing libraries such as Colt? I thought we were over the licensing
> > hurdle
> > for Colt, so anything it already does probably should not be duplicated by
> > code
> > newly written for the proposed project.
> >
> > All the above said, I'm not trying to be discouraging, and in fact I would
> > be
> > willing to participate in mentoring (I'll probably learn something new
> > myself!). I just want reasonable expectations and goals to be set. And
> > perhaps we can all ride the wave of youthful exuberance to grow a library
> > that
> > looks like the beginning of an "Apache-Math-Java".
> >
> >
> > Al
> >
> >
> > --- Phil Steitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > I have volunteered to help Ryan with the proposal below and to serve
> > > as a mentor if it is accepted. Pls see the links infra and the
> > > general Wiki page (http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html) for more
> > > info on Google's "Summer of Code".
> > >
> > > With Ryan's permission, I am forwarding the proposal. The content as
> > > stated clearly goes beyond the current scope of [math], but several
> > > items are in scope.
> > >
> > > Comments, please. After a little discussion - including maybe the
> > > inevitable reopening of the "what do we want to be when we grow up" -
> > > assuming others are favorable, I will work with Ryan to get something
> > > suitable onto the Wiki for consideration as one of the apache
> > > projects. Comments from all commons community members are welcome.
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > >
> > > Phil
> > >
> > > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > > From: Phil Steitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > Date: Jun 2, 2005 4:50 AM
> > > Subject: [Fwd: Mentoring for Google's Summer of Code program]
> > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > -------- Original Message --------
> > > Subject: Mentoring for Google's Summer of Code program
> > > Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 07:23:25 -0700 (PDT)
> > > From: Ryan Li <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >
> > > Dear Phil,
> > >
> > > I'm just wondering if you or other developers of the The Jakarta
> > > Commons Math library would be interested in mentoring me for the Google
> > > Summer of Code program (more details at
> > > http://code.google.com/mentfaq.html and
> > > http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html). Just so you know that the
> > > Apache Software Foundation is already a mentoring organization
> > > (http://wiki.apache.org/general/SummerOfCode2005). Please see below for
> > > my draft project proposal (as you can see I've already mentioned the
> > > Jakarta Commons Math library in it and I've put down ASF as my mentor,
> > > so you or other team members will probably be contacted by Google
> > > soon).
> > >
> > > Thank you very much for your consideration!
> > >
> > > Ryan Du Li
> > > A college student specialising in optimization and numerical analysis
> > >
> > > ------------------------------
> > >
> > > Project description:
> > >
> > > Numerical Library for Financial Modelling / Scientific Computation in
> > > Java (with a C# port)
> > >
> > > The goal of this project is to develop a reusable toolkit for
> > > developing mathematical models for valuing financial products and risk
> > > management. Due to its numerical intensive nature, it can also be used
> > > effectively in other applications that make uses of highly efficient
> > > numerical algorithms. Specific language features and design patterns
> > > will be used aggressively to allow for high performance and
> > > reusability. The C# port will be made in parallel as the Java version
> > > is developed, a number of features of C# (up to version 2.0) will be
> > > used, in particular operator overloading will be used for all matrix
> > > operations.
> > >
> > > Highly efficient numerical algorithms will be implemented in the
> > > following areas:
> > >
> > > 1. a generic matrix and linear algebra package (including support for
> > > dense and sparse matrices and commonly used decomposition methods), an
> > > existing library might be used for this part of the toolkit.
> > >
> > > 2. an approximation package, with an emphasis on the support for
> > > B-splines, which is used to approximate curves in general, given a set
> > > of points on the curve. Very useful for any sort of data fitting, and
> > > heavily used in term structure modelling in finance
> > >
> > > 3. generic PDE/ODE solvers, with built-in support for Poisson/heat/wave
> > > equations. Useful in a large number of situations in modelling.
> > >
> > > 3. an optimization package, including linear programming (simplex
> > > method, later also interior point method), quadratic programming,
> > > nonlinear unconstraint/constraint minimization, later will also include
> > > search methods including genetic programming.
> > >
> > > 4. a simulation package, to provide a framework for running
> > > (Quasi)Monte-Carlo simulations
> > >
> > > 5. other essential tools, multi-dimensional numerical integration,
> > > Fourier transform, root-solver, interpolation/extrapolation, , special
> > > functions, statistical distributions.
> > >
> > >
> > > Current Java/C# open-source efforts in this area are limited (with many
> > > projects abandoned or no longer actively maintained), in particular
> > > useful things like B-Spline PDE-Solver, multi-dimensional numerical
> > > integration, Fourier transform are not addressed in any existing
> > > project I'm aware of (including most commercial ones). Also usually not
> > > the most robust & efficient implementation is used whenever a routine
> > > does exist, commercial projects have a significant advantage in this
> > > respect.
> > >
> > > Some of the code I've written for past school projects (I am a maths
> > > student specialising in optimization and numerical analysis) in the
> > > past will be adapted for various part of the toolkit. It is hoped that
> > > by the end of summer the main components of the library will be ready
> > > for production use, and it will be actively developed and maintained
> > > afterwards.
> > >
> > > I've put down Apache Software Foundation as my sponsor as I noted that
> > > they have a Commons-Math project
> > > (http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/math/) to which my project would
> > > complement very nicely.
> >
> > Albert Davidson Chou
> >
> > Get answers to Mac questions at http://www.Mac-Mgrs.org/ .
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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> > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
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>
>
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