[GRASS-dev] gmath and gpde update

[Glynn Clements]

Soeren Gebbert wrote:

> In case we will use the meschach library within grass to replace the
> existing LAPACK wrapper, my BLAS and solver implementation
> and several numerical recipes algorithm (lu, eigenvalues solvers ...), i
> will take the patched debian sources and integrate them into
> grass.
> 
> IMHO the following changes have to be made in the meschach library:
> 
> * replacing malloc, calloc and realloc with the GRASS implementation

Not necessarily. The G_* versions are merely a convenience to avoid
having to explicitly check for failure. If meschach is already
performing the checking, there probably isn't much reason to change
it.

> * replacing printf and fprintf with the GRASS implementation

GRASS doesn't have implementations of those functions. It has
G_message() etc, which should be used for communicating with the user.

> * changing the error handling to use G_fatal_error and similar GRASS
> functions

Probably, although this should be done in a minimal manner, e.g. 
making errors call a user-defined callback, and installing a callback
which calls G_fatal_error().

> * adding the prefix G_math_ to all extern library functions (with
> preprocessor directives)

Why?

Is there some reason why GRASS must "assimilate" meschach rather than
simply using it (with any modifications which are strictly necessary).

In particular, if any distributions provide a meschach package, it's
generally preferable to use that rather than a private copy.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>