Re: [OctDev] Google Summer of Code 2012: Call for projects and mentors

[Lukas Reichlin]

On 14.02.2012, at 23:15, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:

> Note that I think we should also consider Octave-Forge projects.
> Please add Octave-Forge projects to the wiki as you deem appropriate.

Hi Jordi

I do have an idea for an Octave-Forge project: Improve the "symbolic" package:
- use objects & classes of Octave to enable stuff like overloaded methods for 
symbolic matrices. This could be done in C++ in a way similar to Michele 
Martone's new "sparsersb" package.
- include the ginac library into the package such that there are no external 
libraries required. External libraries are often a pain in the proverbial on 
certain platforms.
An example of included libraries is the "odepkg" package which includes some 
tgz archives that are compiled upon package installation. Maybe a simpler 
symbolic math program like mathomatic could be sufficient (instead of ginac).

A possible application of the rewritten "symbolic" package: I'd like to create 
uncertain state-space models in the control package. One could specify 
variables with a nominal value and a deviation. Then the control package would 
transform the state-space model into an LFT consisting of a nominal plant and 
separate uncertainties. This is a tedious but frequent task in control 
engineering.
But the symbolic package is also useful on its own.

Best regards,
Lukas