Netlib is a repository of software for
scientific computing
Computational science, also known as scientific computing or scientific computation (SC), is a field in mathematics that uses advanced computing capabilities to understand and solve complex problems. It is an area of science that spans many disc ...
maintained by
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...
,
Bell Laboratories
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...
, the
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th sta ...
and
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research an ...
. Netlib comprises many separate programs and
libraries. Most of the code is written in
C and
Fortran, with some programs in other languages.
History
The project began with
email
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
distribution on
UUCP,
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...
and
CSNET The Computer Science Network (CSNET) was a computer network that began operation in 1981 in the United States. Its purpose was to extend networking benefits, for computer science departments at academic and research institutions that could not be d ...
in the 1980s.
The code base of Netlib was written at a time when computer software was not yet considered merchandise. Therefore, no license terms or terms of use are stated for many programs. Before the
Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 (and the earlier
Copyright Act of 1976) works without an explicit
copyright notice were
public-domain software
Public-domain software is software that has been placed in the public domain, in other words, software for which there is absolutely no ownership such as copyright, trademark, or patent. Software in the public domain can be modified, distributed, ...
. Also, most of the Netlib code is
work of US government employees and therefore in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...
.
Classical Fortran: Programming for Engineering and Scientific Applications
"The best known repository of public-domain scientific numerical software is netlib" (2009). While several packages therefore don't have explicit waiver
A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege.
Regulatory agencies of state departments or the federal government may issue waivers to exempt companies from certain regulations. For example, a United St ...
/anti-copyright
Criticism of copyright, or anti-copyright sentiment, is a dissenting view of the current state of copyright law or copyright as a concept. Critics often discuss philosophical, economical, or social rationales of such laws and the laws' imple ...
statements, for instance, the SLATEC package has an explicit statement.
Contents
Some well-known packages maintained in Netlib are:
* AMPL Solver Library (ASL)
*Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms
Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS) is a specification that prescribes a set of low-level routines for performing common linear algebra operations such as vector addition, scalar multiplication, dot products, linear combinations, and mat ...
(BLAS)
* EISPACK
* LAPACK
* LINPACK
* MINPACK
*QUADPACK
QUADPACK is a FORTRAN 77 library for numerical integration of one-dimensional functions. It was included in the SLATEC Common Mathematical Library and is therefore in the public domain. The individual subprograms are also available on netlib ...
The SLATEC package is special in that it comprises a number of other packages like BLAS and LINPACK.
Other projects
*GNU Scientific Library
The GNU Scientific Library (or GSL) is a software library for numerical computations in applied mathematics and science. The GSL is written in C; wrappers are available for other programming languages. The GSL is part of the GNU Project and is ...
(GSL), written in C and distributed under the GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...
References
{{reflist, 30em
External links
www.netlib.org
Numerical software
Public-domain software with source code