--- "J.Pietschmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Stephen Colebourne wrote: > > For me, [math] goes beyond the role of a simple library of common code. > > IT would be interesting to hear what you (and others) think > about the further evolution of [math]. I also really like > to know what current users of [math] currently do with the > library, and what they expect from further development.
I too am very curious about what uses commons-math has been put to and what uses people would like or plan to put it to. I was delighted and tantalized by the user questions that came in from Deutsche Bank not too long ago. > From my point of view, [math] provides currently mainly basic > to moderatly advanced functionality to do descriptive and > analytical statistics. The algebra and solver packages are > more or less utilities for this purpose. > > Building on this, obvious development directions would include > graphical data representation, like GnuPlot or JFreeChart (BTW > there aren't many good plotting/charting packages, and various > initiatives in ASF communities have stalled. Why???), higher > level functionality for statistical tests, or going deeper > into the simulation domain. > > What do you think? I would really like to know what real-world uses the library should support; not being anything like a statistician, I have been somewhat less than enthusiastic about the direction commons-math has taken, but I fully admit that the subdisciplines I'm stronger in are not ones that non-scientific/mathematical users are likely to use and that statistics is an area that such users are much more likely to find helpful. So, I am supportive of commons-math growing in whatever directions its actual users need (and at the same time pragmatically opposed to growth into too-esoteric or user-irrelevant regions). We have reiterated many times that the charter is _not_ to build a complete mathematical library. Al --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
