[SciPy-user] Sparse matrices?

[Travis Oliphant]

Gerber G wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am currently programming Finite Elements. Does scipy support sparse matrices?
> 

The answer is yes, but only in an "alpha" state and there are some 
licensing issues.  For this reason you have to check SciPy out from CVS 
to get it. The sparse matrix support is functional but has not been 
rigorously tested (I think I'm one of the only people that has ever used 
it).   It is based on SPARSKIT from Yousaf Saad (which is GPL'd causing 
some licensing difficulty because SciPy does not want to include GPL 
software with it's redistribution restrictions) and SuperLU1.1 (I'm in 
the process of upgrading to SuperLU2.0) which has a segmentation fault 
problem I encountered on "larger" matrices.  There is also a weak 
wrapper around UMFPACK2.2 (which needs to be upgraded to UMFPACK4.1) 
that I and others have used to solve larger Finite Element problems.

If you would like to help with the development of the sparse package let 
me know.

Best,

Travis Oliphant