[Wavepacket-user] WavePacket C++ version 0.2.2 released

[Ulf L. <ul...@wa...>]

Hi,

I just released version 0.2.2 of the C++ branch of WavePacket. The main
new features for users are:


* Literal suffixes that allow input in arbitrary (supported) units.

  You can write now something like "mass = 16.2_amu", and no longer
  need to convert into atomic units yourself. All units available in
  the Matlab version are supported right now.

* A new operator to simplify the setup of a laser field.

  Most lasers have the form "E(t) = E0(t) * cos(omega*t + phi)". Using
  the new OscillatingField operator primitive, you can directly express
  this with a single line. The envelope E0(t) is a functor here, so
  arbitrary user-defined functions are supported besides the
  implemented sin^2 and Gaussian envelopes.

* Faster compilation

  I removed or hid external references, which significantly speeds up
  the compilation of WavePacket itself (20% or so), but also user
  programs. In addition there is an advanced compile time option to
  use precompiled headers, which speeds up WavePacket compilation by
  another 20-30%. More can be expected after release 0.2.3.

* Prototype of a python interface

  To simplify installation, also for Windows, I would like to offer
  binary packages, which is a bit tricky for technical reasons. As a
  step in this direction, I want to implement an interface to Python,
  so that WavePacket C++ + Python can be distributed in a plug&play
  package.
  A first prototype of such an interface has been implemented. It is
  not useful yet, but works at least for the free particle demo and
  demonstrates (to me) that the interface is possible with reasonable
  effort. More functionality will come with the next releases.


Ulf