ApCoCoALib:RREF

User documentation for files RREF.C and RREF.H

These files contain an interface to several different algorithms which allow to compute the reduced row echelon form of a Matrix over a field K.

The interface to the different algorithms works as follows:

 RREF(R, M, RREFMethod)
 

Computes the reduced row echelon form of the matrix M and stores it in R. The parameter RREFMethod specifies which of the supported algorithms will be used for the computation.

The following values for RREFMethod are currently available:

 RREF_APCOCOA   

Uses an unoptimized computation that works over every field K. (Not yet implemented, see below)

RREF_LINBOX  

Uses a LinBox implementation to compute the reduced row echelon form. Currently you can only use this method for computations over finite fields with characteristic p, p prime.

Maintainer documentation for files RREF.C and RREF.H

For the integration of the LinBox library it was necessary to create several distinct convert functions.

Bugs, Shortcomings and other ideas

It is planned to implement a simple reduced row echelon computation algorithm that does not contain any optimizations and works over every field. This implementation will then become the default method for computing the reduced row echelon form to avoid the necessity to have LinBox available.