Subject: notes to netlib contributors

Thank you for contributing the fruit of your labors to the
general public.  Here are a few points you might want to
consider as you package up your work.

1.  So that you can get proper credit, be sure to include your name and
a journal citation as a comment in your code.  If you want to get bug reports,
also include an email address and date the code was last revised.  Make
certain that co-authors and employers are willing to have the code
freely available in netlib.  Add whatever copyright notice is appropriate;
sample language is available by
	mail netlib@research.att.com
	send boilerplate from research.
This protects both you and the user.

2.  Although some large collections, like linpack, justify a
separate netlib directory to themselves, most contributions
are saved as a single file.  For those running the Unix system,
here is a shell script to combine several files into one.
	#!/bin/sh
	PATH=/bin:/usr/bin
	echo '# To unbundle, sh this file'
	for i; do
		echo "echo $i 1>&2"
		echo "sed 's/.//' >$i <<'EOF $i'"
		sed 's/^/-/' $i
		echo "EOF $i"
	done

3.   Each contribution needs a couple sentences of description
for the index.  Here is an example.

file	a/dloess
for	smoothing of multivariate scattered data
by	Cleveland, Grosse, and Shyu
ref	Statistics and Computation 1:1
prec	double
lang	Fortran77 and C
alg	moving least squares quadratic, k-d trees, blending functions
see	go/lowess

To get a copy of the full schema, browse
http://netlib.att.com/netlib/bib/thesaurus.html.

4. If you depend on machine constants or BLAS, please assume the
user has the ones described in the netlib response to
	send index from blas.
Otherwise, the contents of the file can be most anything you want.
Avoid long lines and nonprinting characters, which are likely to be
corrupted by mailers.  The netlib request "send plauger_chk from research"
will get you a simple C program that checks for such problems.

5.  You may suggest a name you would like your file installed
under;  if not, we'll make up something and let you know.  It will
then be available world-wide from netlib@research.att.com,
http://netlib.att.com/, and other netlib servers world-wide.

6.  There is no refereeing.  Even experimental codes may be suitable
for distribution if no production-quality codes are yet available.
The managing editors and, in some cases, an area editor will take at
least a quick look to be sure the code seems suitable for netlib.
Of course, it is in your own best interests to verify that your
code is ready for public scrutiny.

7.  Netlib is published from time to time on CD-ROM, by
organizations (in which we have no financial interest) that will get
a small profit to make it worth their while.  The profit has to be
small because their competition is giving it away free!  If this
would bother you, tell us.  We think the expanded distribution that
CD-ROM allows is good for everyone.

Once again, thank you for participating in this free scientific
exchange.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

Eric Grosse			908-582-5828 phone
AT&T Bell Labs 2T504		908-582-7415 fax
Murray Hill NJ 07974
ehg@research.att.com

Jack Dongarra
University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory
dongarra@cs.utk.edu