C Mathematical Function Handbook (Programming Tools for Engineers and Scientists)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent tools for scientists.
Review: I have tried to use all of the fuctions in this book and found them to be accurate and precise, except for a few problems that occur with derivatives of the Hankel functions.

Todd R. Downey, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Photometrics Group, Life Sciences Division

Rating:
Summary: A Wide Range of Functions
Review: I have used programs from this book for theta functions and for spheroidal wavefunctions, or rather for the corresponding eigenvalues. For the theta functions I could not find equivalent programs elsewhere. A program for the spheroidal wavefunctions from another recipe book returned erroneous values for certain parameter sets. Baker's code, on the other hand, appeared to have been carefully checked, and functioned correctly (as far as I could determine) for a wide range of parameter values. I had no great difficulty with compilation when I used Turbo C, in which apparently the programs were developed; however, Watcom C choked on both. The problems were minor, or should have been, except that the code read as though it were intended for a "most-confusing-C-code" contest.

Baker does not have a table of dependencies in his book, but a DOS executable which is included will give the information, more or less, while engendering homicidal feelings toward the author!

If the code were cleaned up the book would be a "must-have" for physicists and applied mathematicians.

This book is not for the novice! However, if you need accurate values for the less-common transcendental functions, and are comfortable with C-language programming, then you will *certainly* want a copy.

Rating:
Summary: A bazillion functions but poorly written
Review: This book has an enormous number of mathematical functions implemented. Unfortunately, the quality of the code is poor. However, if you buy a copy of A&S, you can use the code as a starting point and it would be faster than writing it from scratch. If you can find the routines you need in the Cephes collection at netlib, I would strongly encourage you to use those instead. On the other hand, there are many routines in this book that I have not seen implementations for elsewhere.