Low dimensional matrices, vectors, quaternions and a cubic equation solver

[Gareth Charnock]

"Hopeful enthusiast" probably describes me quite well! :) From my point 
of view I can see a wheel that keeps getting reinvented (and the process 
of reinventing that wheel is both fiddly and quite dull), a really great 
looking language that needs better library support.

Now I am aware that D has a reputation for not being as open as one 
might like, but the general consensus seems to be that things are 
getting better, which is why I'm posting first to check if the authors 
of Phobos are open to the idea of having matrices, vectors and 
quaternions and such.

Gareth Charnock

Lars T. Kyllingstad wrote:
> BLS wrote:
>> Like so many hopeful enthusiasts you are trying to bring in something. 
>> I regret that I have to tell you that Phobos is a one man show.
> 
> Actually, it is more like a six- or seven-man show, and the number of 
> developers is growing.
> 
> 
>> ATM we have a situation where the compiler tries to support ideas 
>> written in book not yet available for a library which exist in outer 
>> space.
>> See concurrence (news group) ,container (D)
> 
> The concurrency stuff seems to be well under way.  (An incomplete 
> version of) std.concurrency was included with 2.043.
> 
> 
>> I think we can say that Phobos is a ridiculous tiny library. but in 
>> case that you have a look on what is  happening outside .. a lot. This 
>> is where your library will/can survive.
> 
> By posting messages like this, you're not exactly helping Phobos grow 
> and gain more developers.
> 
>   Potential contributor:  "Hey, I have some code which I think
>       would be useful for Phobos."
> 
>   You:  "Forget it, you'll never get it in.   Besides, Phobos sucks
>       anyway, and there's no point in trying to improve it."
> 
> I mean, what are you trying to achieve with this?
> 
> -Lars
> 
> 
>> On 15/04/2010 20:49, Gareth Charnock wrote:
>>> As a side effect of my PhD project I've got a collection of mathematical
>>> classes. I'd be happy to collect them together, tidy them up and donate
>>> them to phobos the authors are interested in including them. Matrices
>>> and vectors in particular get reinvented all the time so I'm sure users
>>> of D will appreciate them being there. Quaternions are probably somewhat
>>> more specialised; they are most often used for representing rotations
>>> (they have different advantages and disadvantages to rotation matrices).
>>> I've also written a solver for cubic equations.
>>>
>>> The matrix and vector classes are of the sort where the dimension is
>>> known at compile time and will probably be most useful for modelling
>>> geometry. High dimensional matrices and vectors are probably better left
>>> to a scientific library (I remember there was talk that one might be
>>> being proposed).
>>>
>>> Would this sort of functionality be useful for phobos? At the moment, I
>>> can't promise anything, I'm just trying to judge the interest should I
>>> find time to look into it.
>>>
>>> Gareth Charnock
>>