Netlib is a repository of software for
scientific computing
Computational science, also known as scientific computing, technical computing or scientific computation (SC), is a division of science, and more specifically the Computer Sciences, which uses advanced computing capabilities to understand and s ...
maintained by
AT&T
AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
,
Bell Laboratories
Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...
, the
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...
and
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is sponsored by the United Sta ...
. Netlib comprises many separate programs and
libraries
A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
. Most of the code is written in
C and
Fortran, with some programs in other languages.
History
The project began with
email
Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...
distribution on
UUCP
UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy) is a suite of computer programs and communications protocol, protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of computer file, files, email and netnews between computers.
A command named is one of the prog ...
,
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the tec ...
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 ...
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
The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States copyright law and remains the primary basis of copyright law in the United States, as amended by several later enacted copyright provisions. The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders, ...
) works without an explicit
copyright notice
In the copyright law of the United States, United States copyright law, a copyright notice is a notice of statutorily prescribed form that informs users of the underlying claim to copyright ownership in a published work.
Copyright is a form ...
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 exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
.
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.
A waiver is often written, such as a disclaimer that has been accepted, but it may also be spoken between two or more parties. When the right to hold a ...
/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' implem ...
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 (technical standard), specification that prescribes a set of low-level routines for performing common linear algebra operations such as vector space, vector addition, scalar multiplicati ...
(BLAS)
* EISPACK
* LAPACK
* LINPACK
* MINPACK
* QUADPACK
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 (programming language), C; wrappers are available for other programming languages. The GSL is part of ...
(GSL), written in C and distributed under the GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...
References
{{reflist, 30em
External links
www.netlib.org
Numerical software
Public-domain software with source code