[vtk-developers] [Proposal] Moving old univariate solvers from vtkMath to vtkPolynomialSolversUnivariate

[Dean Inglis]

Hi,

Any chance vtkPolynomialSolversUnivariate could be renamed (for example) to
vtkMathPolynomialSolversUnivariate or vtkMathSolvers?  VTK
is getting bigger all the time, especially lately, and it is sometimes
difficult to know where to look for classes/methods that share functional
commonality.

Dean

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dean Inglis, PhD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~ Centre for Appendicular ~~~~~
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies
          www.camris.ca
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
612 - 25 Charlton Ave. E.
Hamilton, Ontario, L8N 1Y2
fax: (905) 521-1297
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Assistant Professor (Adjunct)
Department of Civil Engineering
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Software Demos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVmMdUc1gM8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zYNtHC9-0s

-----Original Message-----
From: vtk-developers-bounces at vtk.org [mailto:vtk-developers-bounces at vtk.org]
On Behalf Of Philippe P. Pebay
Sent: July-30-09 7:02 PM
To: VTK Developers
Subject: [vtk-developers] [Proposal] Moving old univariate solvers from
vtkMath to vtkPolynomialSolversUnivariate

Hello dear VTK developers,

About a year ago, I moved all univariate polynomial solvers which David
Thompson and I had developed, from vtkMath to 
vtkPolynomialSolversUnivariate. This includes in particular the Sturm,
Lin-Bairstow, and Ferrari solvers.
Subsequent development, together with Korben Rusek, of the Habicht solver
has been done directly in 
vtkPolynomialSolversUnivariate.

However, at the time, we did not move the "historic" solvers that were
already present in vtkMath; more precisely, these 
are the quadratic and cubic solvers which use exact (up to numerical
accuracy) algebraic formulas.

I would like to suggest that we move those as well to
vtkPolynomialSolversUnivariate. This would present several advantages:
1. consistency (all solvers in the same place)
2. efficiency (centralized documentation for all solvers, hence allowing
users to learn more easily what options they 
have in terms of univariate polynomial solvers)
3. simplification (vtkMath is now a bloated package of various mathematics
algorithm which have little in common)
4. and other ancillary benefits such as having a single test harness for all
univariate polynomial solvers.

Needless to say, backwards-compatibility would be maintained for a long
while (until a to be determined future release 
number) so every user has a chance to modify his code as needed. I would
suggest something of the order of one year. 
This is similar to what we did with the radian to degree, and degree to
radian, conversion functions.

Please let me know what you think. Thank you.

P.
-- 
Philippe Pébay
Sandia National Laboratories


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