The AlphaSquared C++ Library is a collection of efficient C++ classes designed especially for mathematical and scientific computing. It is pure C++ and currently runs under all Microsoft Windows platforms with both Visual C++ and Borland compilers. It can also be used in a limited capacity under Linux gcc.

The library can be licensed for external commercial use, but it is more commonly used as the foundation of projects that we develop.

We are actively seeking projects of a scientific, mathematical or medical nature.
Please contact:  cameron@AlphaSquared.com
Historically we have focused on projects in the Boston area.

AlphaSquared Philosophy	Graphical User Interface
Example Classes	Library Size
Recent Example Applications

Our Philosophy

The primary impediment to better software development is the difficulty of using existing software components to solve new problems. Solutions to an astronomical number of problems are already available, but software solutions are difficult to reconfigure for new problems. This is a question of evolvability, which nature herself faces in all life forms. Although this may seem to be stretching an analogy, the issues of information storage and the tradeoff between current operation and future fitness in a changing environment are really quite similar. The current implementation must be reasonably efficient, but to avoid dead ends in the future, evolvability is just as important. The solution to evolvability is to avoid dependence on closed, and usually invariant, components. In the short term this inevitably comes at a cost, mostly in the high skills required of the developer, but it excels in the long run.

Change must be possible at all levels, from the lowest to the highest. Fortunately, the designers of C++ were careful to preserve the low level efficiency of C while extending the language to higher levels with object oriented and template constructions. Additionally, the strict type checking of C++ has proved to be an excellent use of processing power for medium and large projects to uncover logical errors. The template mechanism in C++ has been unexpectedly powerful for the highest level of abstractions, stating some patterns that were thought until only recently to be nearly impossible^GOF to implement efficiently and generally.^Alexandrescu 

The pure C++ implementation of algorithms, and the avoidance of platform and vendor dependencies, allow the library to evolve rapidly with the improvements in the C++ language itself.

Although we commend the portability and clarity of Java, the library is implemented in C++ because of its higher efficiency and the existence of templates which are not currently available in Java. The Java language is somewhat simpler for the beginner and intermediate level programmer, but its relatively consistent 5-10x efficiency cost relative to C++ for our applications is prohibitive. C++ templates, when used to express not only generics but also much higher level patterns, significantly increase the expressiveness of the language over Java, reducing errors, hiding implementation details, and increasing productivity. In our experience the strict object oriented style of Java is helpful for clarity and organization but becomes an impediment to expressing higher level organizational patterns. Some current work on Aspects in Java that crosscuts pure object orientation may make the language more competitive in the future.

Related link:         Euclid Alone code of simplicity, clarity, and generality [cuj.com] Chuck Allison

Recent Applications

PatternScanner	Statistical data mining of very large data sets. Heavily statistical, genetic algorithm based, symmetric multiprocessing. (currently proprietary)
AtomExe	Relativistic computation of atomic energy levels for atomic scattering potentials.
MolView	interactive stereographic molecular viewer diatomics to DNA fragments
HTTP Server	compact efficient multithreaded platform independent WWW server
Genetic Algorithm Library	template based, nature inspired, statistical, and noise-safe optimizer
DataSet	compact database specialized for local high speed access and gigabyte archives
Data Regex	grammar based search for patterns in numeric data
Surface Plot and Chemistry Geo	simple 3D graphics for mathematical plotting and molecular structure presentation
Scientific programs
Molecular Dynamics	computation and display of atomic motion especially for atomic and molecular clusters
Gas Phase Electron Diffraction	simulator of scientific experiment (public executable)
GPED Image Processing	image processing software for scientific 16-bit CCD data (public executable)
Molecular Dynamics ED	simulation of molecular dynamics for electron diffraction (public executable)
Paul Trap Ion Motion Simulator	simulation of radio-frequency container for charged atoms and molecules (public executable)
C60 Charge Distribution	computes possible molecular charge distributions (example application)
TOF MS	mass calibration for time-of-flight mass spectrometers (example application)
Jellium	computation of electronic wavefunction in metallic particles (example application)
Small Projects
Self-Organized Nets	primitive classifier or cluster analysis based on neural nets
PictureViewHTML	HTML generation for image sets (non-technical)

Some of these applications are not publicly available but additional information is available on request.

Example Classes

Library Size

The heavy use of C++ templates has allowed the library to increase in size only gradually over the past few years while its functionality has improved dramatically. This code reuse has also decreased programming errors by making them more likely to be evident at earlier stages. Currently the library size is approximately:

AlphaSquaredLib	297 files	74,000 lines of code
AlphaSquaredGUI	87 files	20,500 lines of code
Projects developed with AlphaSquared	298 files	62,400 lines of code
		(as of 3/2002)

Graphical User Interface

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(GOF)

Design Patterns, Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides (Gang of Four)

(Alexandrescu)

Modern C++ Design, Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied, Andrei Alexandrescu, 2001.