Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!uwvax!tank!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Responses to M. Shapiro & K. Bierma
Message-ID: <50500126@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 26 Apr 89 13:57:00 GMT
References: <24091@beta.lanl.gov>
Lines: 23
Nf-ID: #R:beta.lanl.gov:24091:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:50500126:000:1048
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald    Apr 26 08:57:00 1989



>>
>>But what about those users for whom performance is THE most important
>>feature? 

>These folks really, really benefit big from good libraries. With easy
>to learn and use interfaces; with really ugly stuff hidden. The
>proposed standard has much to serve library writers....library users
>don't need to know how it is done, just that it is done well.

One cannot quibble with "Those folks really, really benefit from 
good libraries." Pray tell me, where can I find some of these? 
The only commercial or common public domain library routines I have
found optimal for my use are the routines "tred2" and "tql2" from the
EISPAC library. Can anyone recommend a library routine for integrating
differential equations of the sort I use that is better than the 
sixth order hybrid Gear fixed step size integrator I now use?
I haven't found one to date. (A typical use would be 24 coupled equations
with the subroutine evaluating the derivatives filling 300 lines
with exp's, sqrt's, and tanh's. The solutions are quasi-periodic.)

Doug McDonald