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Release Digest: GNU, August 19, 2003

GNU Scientific Library 1.4

Version 1.4 of the GNU Scientific Library is now available
at,

ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gsl/gsl-1.4.tar.gz

and from mirrors worldwide (see http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html).

A GPG detached signature is available at:

ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gsl/gsl-1.4.tar.gz.asc

The md5 signature is,

7513e13525c073dc07e02cc4354294e2 gsl-1.4.tar.gz

The GNU Scientific Library (GSL) is a collection of routines for
numerical computing in C. This release is backwards compatible with
previous 1.x releases. GSL now includes support for cumulative
distribution functions (CDFs) contributed by Jason H. Stover. The
full NEWS file entry is appended below.

The project home page is at http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/

GSL is free software distributed under the GNU General Public
License.

Thanks to everyone who reported bugs and suggested
improvements.

  • — Brian Gough

What is new in gsl-1.4:

  • Added cumulative distribution functions and their inverses for
    the continuous random distributions including: gaussian, lognormal,
    gamma, beta, cauchy, laplace, chisq, exponential, gumbel, weibull,
    F-distribution, t-distribution, logistic, pareto and rayleigh.
  • Added faster binomial random variates using the TPE rejection
    algorithm, in the function gsl_randist_binomial_tpe.
  • Added new functions gsl_rngfwrite and
    gsl
    rnd_fread for storing the state of random number
    generators in a file.
  • Added a new function gsl_combination_memcpy()
  • Corrected values of electrical constants in CGS units. To take
    account of different electrical systems of units the values are now
    prefixed by GSL_CONST_MKSA (for the SI Metre, Kilogram, Second,
    Ampere system) or GSL_CONST_CGSM (for the Centimetre, Gram, Second,
    Magnetic system with the Gauss as the fundamental unit of magnetic
    field strength). The previous GSL_CONSTMKS and
    GSL
    CONST_CGS prefixes have been removed, as have the
    permeability and permittivity constants in the CGS system since
    this uses different defining equations.
  • Fixed bugs in the random number generators gsl_rng_fishman18,
    gsl_rngfishman2x, and gslrng_knuthran2
    which caused them to return incorrect results. Minor corrections
    were made to the parameters in the other Knuth generators borosh13,
    coveyou, fishman20, lecuyer21, and waterman14.
  • Fixed a missing transpose bug in the gsl_linalg_QR_QRsolve and
    gsl_linalg_QRPT_QRsolve routines which were computing the solution
    to Q^T R x = b instead of Q R x = b.
  • Fixed gsl_sf_gammainv to return zero instead of a domain error
    for arguments corresponding to singularities in gamma.
  • Fixed a bug in the simplex minimization algorithm which caused
    it to fail to find the second highest point correctly when
    searching the set of simplex points.
  • Fixed a bug in the conjugate gradient minimizers conjugate_pr,
    conjugate_fr and vector_bgfs which caused the search directions to
    be updated incorrectly.
  • Fixed a bug in gsl_sfpsi1_int(1) which
    caused it to return the incorrect sign for psi(1,1).
  • Fixed the simulated annealing routine gsl_siman_solve to use
    the parameter iters_fixed_T for the number of iterations at fixed
    temperature instead of n_tries.
  • Fixed a bug in gsl_combination_valid which caused it to return
    the incorrect status.
  • Fixed a bug in gsl_permutationcanonicalto_linear which caused the output to always be
    zero, and the input permutation to be incorrectly replaced by the
    output.
  • Fixed a bug is gsl_ran_discrete which could cause uninitialised
    data to be returned for some distributions.
  • Fixed the dependencies for gsl_chebyshev.h to include
    gsl_math.h.
  • Fixed a bug in gsl_complex_arccsc_real which caused it to
    return the incorrect sign for the imaginary part when
    -1<x<0.
  • Fixed a bug in the QAWC Cauchy integration routine which could
    allow the singularity to fall on an interval boundary, leading to
    division by zero.
  • Improved gsl_sfgammainc_P(a,x) to avoid
    a domain error for x<<a when a>10.
  • Improved the accuracy of gsl_sf_coupling_3j for large
    arguments.
  • Improved the performance of gsl_sf_choose(m,n) by separating
    the calculations for small and large arguments.
  • On platforms without IEEE comparisons gsl_{isnan,isinf,finite}
    will fall back to the system versions of isnan, isinf and finite if
    available.
  • gsl_linalg_householder_hv now uses BLAS routines
    internally
  • The script configure.in is now compatible with autoconf-2.50
    and later.
  • Reduced the memory usage of the multifit algorithms from MxM to
    MxN for large M by performing the QR decomposition of the Jacobian
    in-place.
  • IEEE modes now use the C99 fenv.h functions when platform
    spectific functions are not available.

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