Software Release Announcement

[Chee Yap]

===================== SOFTWARE RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT ==========================

March 15, 2002:
Core Library Version 1.4 is now available for free download at
	
		http://cs.nyu.edu/exact/core/

The Core Library (CORE) is a collection of C/C++ classes to support 
computation with constructible real numbers (+,-,x,/,sqrt), under a variety
of precision requirements.

Numerical nonrobustness is a widely acknowledged problem.  It has proven
particularly intractable in the context of geometric algorithms where
numerical data and combinatorial data are intermixed in a strongly constrained
manner.  Recent research in computational geometry has
demonstrated a variety of techniques based on the principles of
Exact Geometric Computation (EGC) that can address such problems.
A basic goal of our library is to make such techniques easily accessible to 
the wider community of programmers and researchers.

Basic CORE Features:
   -- ease of use:
	Any C/C++ programmer can write numerical or geometric
	code that are fully robust just by calling our Library.
   -- ease of migration:
	Many existing C/C++ programs can be converted into robust CORE
	programs with minimal effort.
   -- natural and novel numerical accuracy model:
	Users can choose and get the numerical accuracy that best fit
	their applications. 
   -- state of art technology:
	The precision-driven approach to EGC, best known root bounds,
	filter technology, etc, will be incorporated into the library
	as the field progresses.  In this way, the user's application program
	will automatically be upgraded (at the cost of re-compilation).
   -- small system:
	It can serve as the "core" for your own applications.
	Just over 200KB (including source, extensions, demos, documentation)
	when gmp is not included.  With gmp, the distribution is 2MB.
   -- tested on Sun Sparc, Linux, cygwin and Windowx platforms.

What is new with CORE 1.4 ?
   -- adoption of gmp as the big number kernel
   -- the BFS floating point filter implemented (significant speedup possible)
   -- improved speed from incremental sqrt algorithm
   -- file I/O in decimal or hex, allowing linear time file I/O of numbers
   -- improved precision-driven algorithms
   -- redesigned geometry 2d and 3d extension libraries
   -- support for cygwin and Windoz platforms 
   -- more sample programs, including the contribution of a hypergeometric
   	package from M.Eleftheriou and J.Moreira of IBM T.J.Watson

We welcome your comments and input.

-- Chee Yap (yap at cs.nyu.edu)
   Zilin Du (zilin at cs.nyu.edu)
   March 15, 2002

                         |============================================= 
                         | Exact Computation Project
                         | Department of Computer Science
                         | Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
                         | New York University
                         | 251 Mercer Street
                         | New York, NY 10012, USA
                         | 
                         | For further information:
                         |    http://cs.nyu.edu/exact/
                         |    mailto://exact@cs.nyu.edu.
                         | 
                         | Supported by NSF/ITR Grant CCR-0082056.
                         |============================================= 

===================== SOFTWARE RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT ==========================

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