computer science

SLATEC

SLATEC is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand SLATEC rather than just read about it. In short: SLATEC Common Mathematical Library is a FORTRAN 77 library of over 1,400 general purpose mathematical and statistical routines. The code was developed at US government research laboratories and is therefore public domain software. "SLATEC" is an acronym for the Sandia, Los Alamos, Air Force Weapons Laboratory Technical Exchange Committee, an organization formed in 1974 to foster the exchange of technical information…

Key takeaways

SLATEC belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect SLATEC to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of SLATEC from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

SLATEC Common Mathematical Library is a FORTRAN 77 library of over 1,400 general purpose mathematical and statistical routines. The code was developed at US government research laboratories and is therefore public domain software. "SLATEC" is an acronym for the Sandia, Los Alamos, Air Force Weapons Laboratory Technical Exchange Committee, an organization formed in 1974 to foster the exchange of technical information between the computer centers of three US government laboratories.

Project history and current status In 1977, the SLATEC Common Mathematical Library (CML) Subcommittee decided to construct a library of FORTRAN subprograms to provide portable, non-proprietary, mathematical software that could be used on a variety of computers, including supercomputers, at the three sites. The computers centers of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the National Bureau of Standards and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory also participated from 1980–81 onwards. The main repository for SLATEC is Netlib. The current version is 4.1 (July 1993). Since then, a very small number of minor corrections has been made without incrementing the version number. The GNU Scientific Library (GSL), initiated in 1996 and stable since 2001, was started with the explicit aim to provide a more modern replacement for SLATEC.

Contents Each subroutine in SLATEC is tagged as belonging to one of 13 subpackages. Some of these subpackages are also well known as free-standing FORTRAN subprogram libraries, including BLAS, EISPACK, FFTPACK, LINPACK and QUADPACK. The following table shows all subpackages and the number of subroutines they contain:

See also List of open-source mathematical libraries

References

Further reading Walter H. Vandevender, Karen H. Haskell, The SLATEC mathematical subroutine library, ACM SIGNUM Newsletter, Volume 17 Issue 3, September 1982 doi:10.1145/1057594.1057595

External links SLATEC source code at Netlib SLATEC information at GAMS

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with SLATEC

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what SLATEC claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to SLATEC before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about SLATEC ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of SLATEC

In research: SLATEC appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses SLATEC in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: SLATEC is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fortran libraries, Numerical software, Public-domain software with source code, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for SLATEC outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study SLATEC in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what SLATEC means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain SLATEC out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is SLATEC in simple terms?

Why does SLATEC matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study SLATEC?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on SLATEC.