Java™ Number Cruncher: The Java Programmer's Guide to Numerical Computing

Preface

The last time I looked, the Java programming language still had +, −, *, /, and % operators to do operations with numbers. It may be hard to believe today, but programming is not only about Web pages, graphics, enterprise software, database systems, and computer games.

I wrote this book to remind today's programmers, especially Java programmers, that computers really are quite good at numerical computing, affectionately known as “number crunching.” In fact, some numerical computing underlies most programs—for example, not too many graphics applications or interactive computer games would get very far without crunching at least a few numbers. Of course, scientific, mathematical, statistical, and financial programs rely heavily on numerical ...