Mark 18 Version of NAG Subroutine Library Available on RCS

Mark 18, the latest version of the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) subroutine library, is now available on all RCS machines. (The new licensing agreement with NAG makes the NAG library available on any Rensselaer-owned computer.)

New Features of the NAG Library Mark 18

A variety of new facilities have been introduced and improvements made to existing areas. These changes extend the areas of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), partial differential equations (PDEs), interpolation, optimization, sparse linear algebra and operations research (OR).

Coverage in the differential equations chapters (Chapter D02 and Chapter D03) has been extended as follows:

• A simple driver interface for the integration of a system of first order ODEs using a fixed order Runge--Kutta method until a user-specified function is zero (Chapter D02)

• New approximate and exact Riemann solvers for 1-D Euler equations (Chapter D03)

• Solution of time dependent second order PDEs in 2-D using adaptive mesh refinement (Chapter D03)

New routines for generating and evaluating interpolants to 2-D and 3-D scattered data sets (using a modified Shepard interpolant) are included in the interpolation chapter (Chapter E01).

The most significant additions to the optimization chapter (Chapter E04) are as follows:

• New routines to solve sparse LP and QP problems (including MPSX data-handling capabilities)

• New routines for unconstrained minimization with an extended parameter list to replace existing routines with reserved names

• A new reverse communication routine for constrained minimization using a sequential quadratic programming method

Coverage in the sparse linear algebra chapter (Chapter F11) has been extended to provide iterative methods and preconditioners for real nonsymmetric linear systems of equations.

A new routine for finding the shortest path through a network is included in the operations research chapter (Chapter H).

Compiling Programs

Example commands for compiling a FORTRAN program with the NAG Mark 18 library are listed below; use those appropriate to your machine type:

IBM AIX systems using the IBM BLAS library:

	xlf mycode.f -L/campus/math/nag/18d/@sys/lib -lnag -lblas

IRIX SGI systems:

 
	export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/campus/math/nag/18d/@sys/lib
   	f77 mycode.f -L/campus/math/nag/18d/@sys/lib -lnag

SGI IRIX systems using the SGI BLAS Library:

	export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/campus/math/nag/18d/@sys/lib
	f77 mycode.f -L/campus/math/nag/18d/@sys/lib -lnag_csm

Sun Solaris systems:

   		
	f77 mycode.f -L/campus/math/nag/18d/@sys/lib -lnag

Getting Additional Help

To view NAG's on-line documentaion, enter the following commands from a UNIX prompt:

   	setup nag
   	naghelp

Users will still be able to access the current version of the program, NAG 17, until January 4, 2000, by entering the command setup nag-old from a UNIX prompt before running the program.

If you have any further questions about using the NAG libraries, please contact the consultants at the ACS Help Desk locations, or direct electronic mail to consult@rpi.edu.