commons-math/RELEASE-NOTES.txt

                        Apache Commons Math Version 2.0
                                   RELEASE NOTES


This release is a major one. It combines bug fixes, new features and
changes to existing features. Most notable among the new features are:
  - decomposition algorithms in the linear algebra (LU, QR, Cholesky,
    SVD, eigen decomposition) which are based on the popular JAMA API (but
    much faster),
  - support for sparse matrices and vectors,
  - support for any field-based matrix (Complex, Fraction ...),
  - support for genetic algorithms
  - several new optimization algorithms (Dantzig's simplex for linear
    constrained problems, conjugate gradient, Brent)
  - support for curve fitting with special cases for harmonic and polynomial
    functions
  - support for state derivative in ODE step handlers
  - new multistep integrators (Adams-Bashforth and Adams-Moulton) with
    variable stepsize
  - regression algorithms
  - rank transformations

This release is NOT source and binary compatible with earlier versions
of Commons Math. Starting with version 2.0 of the library, the minimal
version of the Java platform required to compile and use commons-math
is Java 5. Switching to this new version is thought to be an easy task
and it is recommended to do it. Most of the compilation errors users
will encounter after the switch will be due to classes moved due to
packages reorganization. These errors are simply solved by adjusting
the import statements in users code. In any case, you can ask for help
by sending a message to the users mailing list: user@commons.apache.org.

For more information on Apache Commons Math, see
http://commons.apache.org/math/


                             SUMMARY OF CHANGES

New features:

o Added curve fitting with a general case and two specific cases
  (polynomial and harmonic).

o Added a way to limit the number of functions evaluations in
  optimizers (the number of iterations could already be limited)
  Thanks to Gilles Sadowski.

o Added support for rank transformations.

o Added support for any type of field in linear algebra (FielxMatrix,
  FieldVector, FieldLUDecomposition)

o The RealMatrixImpl implementation classes has been renamed
  Array2DRowRealMatrix to reflect its specificities and for
  consistency with the new implementations. The previous name is still
  available but is deprecated

o Added a block-based storage type for dense matrices improving speed
  for large dimensions

o Added AggregateSummaryStatistics class to support aggregation of
  SummaryStatistics. Thanks to John Bollinger.

o Added general Field and FieldElement interfaces to allow generic
  algorithms to operate on fields. The library already provides
  several implementations: Complex, Fraction, BigFraction and BigReal

o Added a SparseRealVector class that implements a sparse vector for
  the RealVector interface.

o Added a getCovariance method to singular value decomposition Thanks
  to Dimitri Pourbaix.

o Added method to walk matrix entries with or without changing them in
  the visitor design pattern sense. Three different orders can be
  used, row by row, column by column or optimized order according to
  internal storage. Optimized order should be preferred when no
  specific order is needed, because it will be more cache efficient.

o Added an int/double hash map (OpenIntToDoubleHashMap) with much
  smaller memory overhead than standard java.util.Map (open addressing
  and no boxing). Thanks to Ismael Juma.

o Support for one dimensional vectors has been added to the linear
  algebra package with a RealVector interface, a RealVectorImpl
  default implementation using a single double array to store elements
  and a RealVectorFormat for input/output. Thanks to Andreas Rieger.

o New ODE integrators have been added: the explicit Adams-Bashforth
  and implicit Adams-Moulton multistep methods. As the implementations
  of these methods are based on Nordsieck vector rather than a
  traditional array of previous steps, they both have been improved to
  handle adaptive stepsize. These methods provide the same rich
  features has the existing ones: continuous output, step handlers,
  discrete events, G-stop ...

o All ODE integrators now support setting a maximal number of
  evaluations of differential equations function. If this number is
  exceeded, an exception will be thrown during integration. This can
  be used to prevent infinite loops if for example error control or
  discrete events create a really large number of extremely small
  steps.

o All step interpolators for ODE integrators now provide interpolation
  for both the state and its time derivatives. The interpolated
  derivatives are the exact derivatives of the interpolated state,
  thus preserving consistency.  The general step handlers hence do not
  need to call the derivation function anymore. The fixed step
  handlers also get the time derivative of the state as an additional
  argument along with the state when they are called.

o Switching functions can now throw dedicated SwitchException from all
  their method. At upper call level, the various ODE integrators
  handle these new exceptions and wrap them into IntegratorException
  instances, hence the integrators methods signature did not change.

o Added factory methods to create Chebyshev, Hermite, Laguerre and
  Legendre polynomials.

o Added add, subtract, negate, multiply and toString methods to
  PolynomialFunction.

o Added a Legendre-Gauss integrator.

o Added add/subtract/multiply/divide functions with integer parameters
  to Fraction

o Added some utility functions to compute powers with integral types
  (int, long, BigInteger).

o Added a scalb method in MathUtils. This method is similar to the
  method with same name added in java.lang.Math as of Java 6.

o Added several convenience methods and constants for Vector3D and
  Rotation.

o MATH-114: Added PearsonsCorrelation class to compute correlation
  matrices, standard errors and p-values for correlation
  coefficients. Thanks to John Gant.

o MATH-114: Added Covariance class to compute variance-covariance
  matrices in new correlation package.

o MATH-136: Added Spearman's rank correlation
  (SpearmansCorrelation). Thanks to John Gant.

o MATH-152: Added support for multi-dimensional Fourier
  transform. Thanks to Remi Arntzen.

o MATH-177: Added a new univariate sub-package below the optimization
  package. Thanks to Gilles Sadowski.

o MATH-178: Added support for the Zipf distribution. Thanks to Paul
  Cowan.

o MATH-202: Added the getSwitchingFunctions and
  clearSwitchingFunctions to the FirstOrderIntegrator interface and
  all its implementations

o MATH-203: Added Mauro's patch to support multiple regression. Thanks
  to Mauro Talevi.

o MATH-212: Added support for copying statistics. Changes to stats
  classes include copy constructor, static copy(-,-) and instance
  copy() methods. Added copy() to UnivariateStatistic and
  StorelessUnivariateStatistic interfaces. Thanks to Jason
  C. HandUber.

o MATH-215: Added Fast Hadamard Transform. Thanks to Bernhard
  Grünewaldt.

o MATH-219: Added removeData methods for the SimpleRegression
  class. This allows to support regression calculations across a
  sliding window of (time-based) observations without having to
  recalculate for the entire window every time. Thanks to Andrew
  Berry.

o MATH-220: Added JAMA-like interfaces for eigen/singular
  problems. The implementation are based on the very quick dqd/dqds
  algorithms and some parts of the MRRR algorithm. This leads to very
  fast and accurate solutions.

o MATH-220: Added JAMA-like interfaces for decomposition
  algorithms. These interfaces decompose a matrix as a product of
  several other matrices with predefined properties and shapes
  depending on the algorithm. These algorithms allow to solve the
  equation A * X = B, either for an exact linear solution
  (LU-decomposition, Cholesky decomposition) or an exact or
  least-squares solution (QR-decomposition).

o MATH-222: Added beta distribution. Thanks to Ted Dunning.

o MATH-222: Added probability density functions computation for
  distributions for which it is feasible. Thanks to Ted Dunning.

o MATH-229: Added a removal feature for observations in descriptive
  statistics. Thanks to Cyril Briquet.

o MATH-230: Added support for sparse matrix. Thanks to Sujit Pal and
  Ismael Juma.

o MATH-231: Added an abstract matrix implementation simplifying
  extension by users.

o MATH-232: Added Frobenius matrix norm.

o MATH-234: Added setter methods for rows and columns in matrices.

o MATH-236: Added nth root computation for complex numbers. Thanks to
  Bernhard Grünewaldt.

o MATH-246: Added an optimizer for constrained linear problems based
  on 2-phases standard simplex. Thanks to Benjamin McCann.

o MATH-247: Added a MathUtils method to check equality given some
  error bounds. Thanks to Benjamin McCann.

o MATH-251: Added a BigFraction class that does not overflow when big
  numerators or denominators are used. Thanks to Benjamin Croizet.

o MATH-256:  Added  Fraction.toString()

o MATH-266: Added a clustering package with an implementation of the
  k-means++ algorithm Thanks to Benjamin McCann.

o MATH-267:  Added digamma function. Thanks to Ted Dunning.

o MATH-277: Added a scalar multiply to the Complex class Thanks to
  Mark Anderson.

o MATH-278: Added robust locally weighted regression (Loess). Thanks
  to Eugene Kirpichov.

o MATH-279: Added a check for too few rows with respect to the number
  of predictors in linear regression Thanks to Michael Bjorkegren.

Fixed Bugs:

o Fixed an infinite loop encountered in some backward integration
  cases for ODE solvers. Thanks to Pascal Parraud.

o Fixed inconsistencies in the naming scheme for static fields in
  Vector3D and Rotation with respect to the overall library.

o MATH-177: Redesigned the optimization framework for a simpler yet
  more powerful API.  Added non-linear conjugate gradient optimizer.

o MATH-193: Javadoc and style fixes. Thanks to Michael Heuer and Sebb.

o MATH-198: Added an error detection for missing imaginary character
  while parsing complex string Thanks to Frederick Salardi.

o MATH-199: Detect numerical problems in Q.R decomposition for
  Levenberg-Marquardt estimator and report them appropriately Thanks
  to Mick.

o MATH-200: Fixed several crashes in getCovariances() and
  guessParametersErrors() in AbstractEstimator when some parameters
  are bound. The methods now explicitly give result only about unbound
  parameters. Thanks to Plamen Petrov.

o MATH-201: Fixed truncation error in t-test classes for large t
  values. Thanks to Peter Wyngaard.

o MATH-204: Added root checks for the endpoints. Thanks to Mick.

o MATH-205: Fixed formula in fast cosine transformer javadoc
  comments. Thanks to Roman Werpachowski.

o MATH-207: Added Genetic Algorithm implementation. Thanks to David
  Stefka.

o MATH-209: Fixed dimension error on output vector for the operate
  method in RealMatrixImpl and BigMatrixImpl classes. Thanks to Thomas
  Chust.

o MATH-210: Changed return type for
  FirstOrderIntegrator.getSwitchingFunctions() to a collection of
  SwitchingFunction instances. This better suits the intended use of
  the method and fixes a visibility error since the previous return
  type referenced the package private SwitchState class.

o MATH-213: Changed return type for FirstOrderIntegrator.integrate()
  to double in order to retrieve exact stop time. This allows to
  handle properly integration interruption due to an EventHandler
  instance asking to stop the integration when its associated event is
  triggered. The state was already set to the current state at
  interruption time, but it was difficult to get the corresponding
  time (it involved setting a step handler monitoring the last step
  specially).

o MATH-214: Replaced size adjustment of all steps of fixed steps
  Runge-Kutta integrators by a truncation of the last step only.

o MATH-216: Improved fast Fourier transform efficiency. Thanks to
  Cyril Briquet.

o MATH-221: Changed the Complex.equals() method so that it considers
  +0 and -0 are equal, as required by IEEE-754 standard. Thanks to
  Dieter Roth.

o MATH-223: Greatly improved QR-decomposition speed using transposed
  matrices internally. Thanks to John Mulcahy.

o MATH-226: Fixed an error in CorrelatedRandomVectorGenerator leading
  to a component of the generated vector being constant. Thanks to
  Stuart Siegel.

o MATH-227: Fixed F distribution inverse CDF computation for small
  denominator degrees of freedom. Thanks to Joerg Henning.

o MATH-238: Fixed an error in gcd computation for large values. Thanks
  to Christian Semrau.

o MATH-240: Fixed error in factorial computation for 17 <= n <= 20.
  Thanks to Christian Semrau.

o MATH-241: Fixed error in binomial coefficient computation. Thanks to
  Christian Semrau.

o MATH-243: Fixed an error in computing gcd and lcm for some extreme
  values at integer range boundaries. Thanks to Christian Semrau.

o MATH-248: Greatly improved multiplication speed for sparse matrices

o MATH-252: Fixed a comparison error when two different fractions
  evaluate to the same double due to limited precision.

o MATH-253: Fixed threading issues with MathException and
  MathRuntimeException Thanks to Sebb.

o MATH-254: Fixed threading issues with UnivariateRealSolverUtils
  factory Thanks to Sebb.

o MATH-255: Reduced visibility of MessagesResources_fr.contents field
  to private Thanks to Sebb.

o MATH-257: Fixed inconsistent access to multidimensional array in
  FastFourierTransformer Thanks to Sebb.

o MATH-263: Added getNorm1, getNormInf, distance1 and distanceInf to
  the Vector3D class

o MATH-264: Added an utility equality method between double numbers
  using tolerance in ulps (Units in Last Position) Thanks to Gilles
  Sadowski.

o MATH-265: Added distance1, distance and distanceInf utility methods
  for double and int arrays in MathUtils Thanks to Benjamin McCann.

o MATH-272: Fixed a problem when setting some variables (several
  variables were set instead of only one) Thanks to Benjamin McCann.

o MATH-273: Fixed a wrong check for basic variables Thanks to Benjamin
  McCann.

o MATH-274: Fixed detection of not positive definite matrices in
  Cholesky decomposition

o MATH-280: The behavior of the bracket method in
  UnivariateRealSolverUtils has been changed to return successfully
  when a tentative bracketing interval has a root exactly at one of
  its end points. Previously, such intervals triggered an exception.

Changes:

o Changed the return type of the various interpolation algorithms to
  the specific implementation of UnivariateRealFunction each one uses
  Thanks to Gilles Sadowski.

o Completed internationalization of all error messages

o Integration algorithms now can have both relative and absolute
  accuracy settings.

o The analysis package has been reorganized with several sub-packages.

o The ODE integrators now support several step handlers at once,
  instead of just one.  This is more consistent with event handlers
  management.  The setStepHandler method has therefore been replaced
  by addStephandler, the getStepHandler method has been replaced by
  getStepHandlers which returns a Collection and a clearStepHandlers
  method has been added.

o Events handlers in the ODE package now also provide the switching
  function variation (increasing/decreasing) when an event occurs

o Clarified the ODE package by breaking in into several sub-packages
  and renaming classes (SwitchingFunctions/EventHandler,
  SwitchingFunctionsHandler/CombinedEventsManager)

o The FirstOrderDifferentialEquations, FirstOrderIntegrator and
  FixedStepHandler interfaces now extends Serializable, allowing
  integrators, problems and handlers to be embedded into users
  Serializable classes.

o Replaced public no argument constructors with IDENTITY or ZERO
  static instances for immutable classes Vector3D and Rotation.

o Greatly improved RealMatrixImpl and BigMatrixImpl performances, both
  in terms of speed and in terms of temporary memory footprint.

o Starting with version 2.0 of the library, the minimal version of the
  Java platform required to compile and use commons-math is Java 5.
  This version is widely deployed now on many systems. It brings
  new important features for specific mathematical developments, for
  example new functions (log10, cbrt, ulp, signum, cosh, sinh, tanh,
  hypot, expm1, log1p), autoboxing, MathContext or RoundingMode. It
  also brings important features for general development, for example
  enums, generics or annotations.

o Removed deprecated features. This includes the following
  changes. Factory-based instantiation replaced by setter injection in
  1.2 in several classes have been removed. Protected fields in
  matrices implementations have been declared final and
  private. Identity factory methods moved to MatrixUtils class have
  been removed. Complex utilities methods that have been superseded by
  Complex instance methods have been removed.

o MATH-189: Changed FractionFormat to extend NumberFormat.

o MATH-217: Changed OLS regression implementation added in MATH-203 to
  use QR decomposition to solve the normal equations.

o MATH-218: The root solvers and the integrators now take the function
  to solve as a parameter to the solve/integrate methods, thus
  allowing to reuse the same solver/integrator for different
  functions.

o MATH-242: Forced symmetry in binomialCoefficientLog and added test
  cases for MathUtils. Thanks to Christian Semrau.

o MATH-276: Optimized Complex isNaN(), isInfinite() by moving
  computation to constructor. Thanks to Mark Anderson.


For complete information on commons-math, including instructions on
how to submit bug reports, patches, or suggestions for improvement,
see the commons-math website:

http://commons.apache.org/math/