cline@cs.utexas.edu (Alan Cline) (11/29/89)
A new version of the software package FITPACK has been placed on
netlib. FITPACK contains code for curve and surface fitting and
smoothing in various space dimensions and geometries. The under-
lying functional form employed is the tension spline, which al-
lows the reproduction of such properties of data as positivity,
monotonicity, and convexity. The package began development in
1972.
A small subset of the 1979 version of FITPACK was placed on net-
lib several years ago. That version had only a few subprograms,
is antiquated, and its usage is discouraged. The new subset of
FITPACK to be distributed by netlib is taken from the most recent
edition of the entire package. (In terms of characters, lines of
code, and number of subprograms this subset is about 20% of FIT-
PACK. However, these 25 subprograms account for about 95% of
usages of the package.) What has been omitted in the subset are
such capabilities as:
1. Automatic tension determination,
2. Derivatives, arclengths, and enclosed areas for planar
curves,
3. Three dimensional curves,
4. Special surface fitting using equispacing assumptions,
5. Surface fitting in annular, wedge, polar, toroidal, lunar,
and spherical geometries,
6. B-splines-in-tension generation and usage,
7. General surface fitting in three dimensional space.
Questions about the package can be addressed to Alan Cline, Com-
puter Sciences Department, The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, TX 78712 USA. Telephone inquiries should use (512) 471-
9717 and e-mail is cline@cs.utexas.edu. Interested parties can
obtain the entire package on disk or tape from Pleasant Valley
Software, 8603 Altus Cove, Austin TX 78759 (USA) at a cost of
$495 US. A 340 page manual is available for $30 US per copy. The
package includes examples and machine-readable documentation.