CFFI: Was ( Question on augmented_lagrangian_method)
Subject: CFFI: Was ( Question on augmented_lagrangian_method)
From: Michel Van den Bergh
Date: Sun, 20 May 2007 08:50:10 +0200
>
>
>There are doubtless much stronger methods. About ipopt,
>that could be used via a foreign-function interface. I believe
>the project called CFFI is the most widely supported of such
>interfaces. CFFI doesn't work with GCL, unfortunately. But
>maybe it is not too early for Maxima to start working on
>libraries in C/C++ and/or Fortran via CFFI for other Lisps.
>
<rant>
This is one of the most frustrating things in maxima. There are so
many excellent free software libraries around but they are very
difficult to use
in maxima since GCL does not support a decent foreign function
interface. As a result the wheel has to be reinvented all the time.
Sage for example does not have this problem.
Python is trivial to interface with libraries and hence sage can pick and
choose the best available implementations for specific functionality
(the object oriented nature of python makes this very natural).
So sage has very fast linear algebra over finite fields using linbox,
very fast
polynomial arithmetic using the new libSingular etc...
Personally I would simply drop support for GCL if the developers want to
stay
in their own little world and not support something **vital** like CFFI.
The possible drop in speed
would be more than offset by the possibility of using external optimized
libraries for
specific tasks.
</rant>
Michel