[Help-gsl] handling memory for ODE micro steps

[Marco Maggi]

Ciao,

  I wonder if someone can suggest me a somewhat efficient
way to handle memory allocation and result storage for
'gsl_odeiv_evolve_apply()' micro steps results.

  In my library I use the ODE solver in the same way
'lsode' is used in GNU Octave: select a vector of time
steps and let the solver compute the evolution in each
step. Octave does not allow access to micro step results.

  The GSL function allows us access these results,
but their number is not known in advance, hence the
need to select a memory allocation and value storage
policy.

  I want the final result to be a GSL matrix with
each state's values stored in a row. If I store the
result in this way I cannot reallocate the block of
memory without reordering the values. But if I store
the state in a column I finally have to transpose the
values, can it be done in place?

  I thought that this problem may be similar to the string
memory management in scripting languages. Example: when
TCL first allocates memory for a string it gives to it
just enough bytes to hold all the chars; if a char is
appended TCL reallocates the string doubling its size,
and so on: each time the memory is full it is reallocated
with doubled size. They say that this, experimentally,
works fine.

  Another possibility is to allocate a linked list of
matrices, but it requires more memory and infrastructure.

TIA.

--
Marco Maggi