Conclusions

We have designed a C++ class framework for handling optimization problems involving linear operators. The use of C++ has enabled us to separate the task of writing procedural operators from the task of writing routines to solve the optimization problems. This separation was not possible in Fortran and we were limited in the type of problems we could solve in Fortran because of the growing complexity of the code.

The encapsulation of the concepts of linear operators and spaces in concrete C++ classes enable authors to deal with problems at a much higher level than in Fortran. The error checking built into the base operator and space classes is a valuable aid to writing new code and prevents many of the trivial book-keeping errors that occur when writing in Fortran.