Re: [OctDev] quick release

[David B. <Dav...@mo...>]

According to Michael Creel <mic...@ua...> (on 09/06/04):
> 
> So far I haven't seen use of bfgsmin or the other routines that are documented 
> as being intended for end users cause core dumps, but that's not to say that 
> it can't happen. It's true that Teemu's example for calling newtonstep 
> without arguments dumps core, but as the source code says, newtonstep is not 
> intended for use by end users. For the moment, I'd point people to the 
> documentation in main/optim/doc, but in the medium term I'll try to add 
> proper argument checking to all functions.
> 
> The reason bsgsmin doesn't do bulletproofing internally is because that leads 
> to users minimizing a different function than they think they are, and the 
> end point the algorithm converges to may depend upon the specific 
> implementation. Difficulties in minimization can lead to learning about where 
> the problematic spots are in the function. Different users may like to 
> bulletproof in different ways. The documentation does suggest how 
> bulletproofing might be done, but I'm reluctant to use a one-size-fits-all 
> approach internally to the minimization algorithms.
> 
> Suggestions are welcome, however.
> 
> Michael

Bulletproofing in this case means throwing an error rather than a seg fault.
It doesn't mean using the incorrect constraint function.

D.

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David Bateman                                Dav...@mo...
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