[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] IMSL bindings

[Doug Heisterkamp]

> 
> It would make some people here very happy if there were Python
> bindings to the IMSL Fortran libraries (and C, but they're less
> complete).
> 
> Have people come up with tools which make binding to Fortran
> libraries relatively automatic?  IMSL is fairly big.
> 
> --david
> 

Hi,

The low level access to the LAPACK library is generate automatically.
Unfortunately, it is not a general tool.  It was written to process
the CLapack version of the Lapack library.  It should work with most
fortran libraries after the code has been processed with f2c as long
as some of the conventions in CLapack are used.

The converter has a number of limitations.  The main one is due to using
the C code function heading, such as, it can not tell the difference 
between a double and an array of doubles.  Assumptions are made in these 
cases and an exception dictionary is maintained for when the assumptions
are wrong.  

If I were to write a second version of this tool, I would use kjParser.py
and have it read the fortran source code.  In addition, outputting the FIDL
description may be desirable (I have not seen or used FIDL, but it sounds
interesting).  The original version started out as a grep of the function
headings and grew into the mess it is from there.

If you wish to try to use the converter on the IMSL libraries, you are
welcomed to use it.  Though I think you could write you own parser from
scratch faster then understanding and modifying the converter if it does
not work.  I'm planning on building a low level access module to ODRPACK.  
When I do this, I may modify the converter enough so that it can be used
on a wider set of fortran libraries.

Doug Heisterkamp
drh@cse.unl.edu

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