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 doing out-of-place modifications.

• You can import the whole prelude using:

use nalgebra::na::*;

The preferred way to use nalgebra is to import types and traits explicitly, and call free-functions using the na:: prefix:

extern crate nalgebra;
use nalgebra::na::{Vec3, Rot3, Rotation};
use nalgebra::na;

fn main() {
    let     a = Vec3::new(1.0f64, 1.0, 1.0);
    let mut b = Rot3::new(na::zero());

    b.append_rotation(&a);

    assert!(na::approx_eq(&na::rotation(&b), &a));
}

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.
• Some matrix factorization algorithms: QR decomposition, ...
• Almost one trait per functionality: useful for generic programming.
• Operator overloading using the double trait dispatch trick. For example, the following works:

extern crate 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.