DELIB

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DELIB

Frequently asked questions

• Tell me about DELIB
  1. What is the service provided?
  2. Why would I want to use this service?
  3. Why are you doing this?
• The content of the DELIB database
  1. What is in the database?
  2. Where did the content come from?
• The design of DELIB
  1. Are there any use cases?
  2. How is DELIB constructed?
• Other issues involving DELIB
  1. How can I contact DELIB?
  2. How can I help DELIB?
  3. Who runs DELIB?
  4. What remains to be done for DELIB?

1. What is the service provided?

   DELIB is a differential equations library. It has been designed to be comprehensive, extensible, and free. It is hoped that all users of differential equations will find this resource useful.

2. Why would I want to use this service?

   Suppose you have a differential equation and would like to get some information about it, such as

   • what is the solution?
   • what does the solution look like graphically?
   • what other differential equations is it related to?
   • does it have a Lie group?
   • who has studied this equation in the literature?

   
   DELIB is mainly focused on the last need, finding references for a given differential equation. From the references, many of the above properties may be determined. In some cases, DELIB may actually have some of this information in its database.

3. Why are you doing this?

   There are many mathematicians (and others) who find differential equations fascinating. This is our way of producing something of use to the differential equations community.

1. What is in the database?

   The database contains differential equation and, for each specific differential equation,

   • its attributes (degree, order, whether or not linear, ODE or PDE, etc)
   • (sometimes) connections to other equations
   • (sometimes) explicit solutions of that differential equation
   • (sometimes) references to print publications referencing that differential equation
   • (sometimes) URLs of electronic publications referencing that differential equation
   • (sometimes) transformations of that differential equation

2. Where did the content come from?

   The current content came from the following sources:

   • hand selected equations that have been entered
   • Maple renditions of the differential equations in Kamke's ODE book (see http://lie.uwaterloo.ca/odetools/comparison.html)

1. Are there any use cases?

   Yes. The Main Success Scenario (MSS) is as follows:

   1. Customer enters the site and selects desired functionality
   2. Customer is presented with form for selecting properties of a differential equation.
   3. Customer specifies the properties of a differential equation.
   4. System presents a list of matching differential equations and also presents form for selecting properties of a differential equation filled in with customer selected values.
   5. Customer selects one differential and requests more information.
   6. Systems presents one differential equation in greater detail.
   7. Customer follows a link to one of the electronic sources listed.

   
   2a: System presents a table of contents.

   4a: System states that there are no matching equations, returns to step 2.

   4b: Customer modifies properties and re-submits form.

   7a: Customer selects a numeric solver with which to investigate the differential equation

2. How is DELIB constructed?

   The DELIB site has been specified in a requirements document. Constructive comments on this document are appreciated.
   The site itself uses the following capabilities: CSS, XHTML, MySQL, php, and python. It should work with any browser.
          

1. How can I contact DELIB?

   See all our contact information here.

2. How can I help DELIB?

   • Volunteer to help with any aspect of the system.
   • Constructive criticism on the present site is appreciated.
   • Tell your friends to visit http://www.delib.com.

3. Who runs DELIB?

   There is an advisory board that makes recommendations on all matters involving DELIB; for example, what material is to be included, how it is to be presented, etc.

4. What remains to be done for DELIB?

   There is a lot to do, including:

   • Apply for funding to continue this work.
   • Construct the user guide
   • Create TOC and populate TOC with database contents.
   • Design and construct database.
   • Improve the FAQ
   • Improve the requirements documents
   • Obtain more content for site.
   • Review all files on this site.