nalgebra/README.md

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nalgebra

nalgebra is a linear algebra library written for Rust targeting:

  • general-purpose linear algebra (still misses a lot of features…).
  • real time computer graphics.
  • real time computer physics.

An on-line version of this documentation is available here.

Using nalgebra

All the functionalities of nalgebra are grouped in one place: the na module. This module re-exports everything and includes free functions for all traits methods. Free functions are useful if you prefer doing something like na::dot(v1, v2) instead of v1.dot(v2).

  • You can import the whole prelude, including free functions, using:
use nalgebra::na::*;
  • If you dont want to import everything but only every trait:
use nalgebra::traits::*;
  • If you dont want to import everything but only every structure:
use nalgebra::structs::*;

Of course, you can still import nalgebra::na alone, and get anything you want using the prefix na.

Features

nalgebra is meant to be a general-purpose linear algebra library (but is very far from that…), and keeps an optimized set of tools for computational graphics and physics. Those features include:

  • Vectors with static sizes: Vec0, Vec1, Vec2, Vec3, Vec4, Vec5, Vec6.
  • Square matrices with static sizes: Mat1, Mat2, Mat3, Mat4, Mat5, Mat6 .
  • Rotation matrices: Rot2, Rot3, Rot4.
  • Isometries: Iso2, Iso3, Iso4.
  • Dynamically sized vector: DVec.
  • Dynamically sized (square or rectangular) matrix: DMat.
  • A few methods for data analysis: Cov, Mean.
  • Almost one trait per functionality: useful for generic programming.
  • Operator overloading using the double trait dispatch trick. For example, the following works:
extern mod nalgebra;
use nalgebra::na::{Vec3, Mat3};
use nalgebra::na;

fn main() {
    let v: Vec3<f64> = na::zero();
    let m: Mat3<f64> = na::one();

    let _ = m * v;   // matrix-vector multiplication.
    let _ = v * m;   // vector-matrix multiplication.
    let _ = m * m;   // matrix-matrix multiplication.
    let _ = v * 2.0; // vector-scalar multiplication.
}

Compilation

You will need the last rust compiler from the master branch. If you encounter problems, make sure you have the last version before creating an issue.

git clone git://github.com/sebcrozet/nalgebra.git
cd nalgebra
make

You can build the documentation on the doc folder using:

make doc

nalgebra in use

Here are some projects using nalgebra. Feel free to add your project to this list if you happen to use nalgebra!

  • nphysics: a real-time physics engine.
  • ncollide: a collision detection library.
  • kiss3d: a minimalistic graphics engine.
  • frog: a machine learning library.