SPAM                  package:spam                  R Documentation

_S_P_A_r_s_e _M_a_t_r_i_x _P_a_c_k_a_g_e

_D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n:

     'spam' is a collection of functions for sparse matrix algebra.

_G_e_r_e_r_a_l _o_v_e_r_v_i_e_w:

     What is spam and what is it not:

     While 'Matrix' seems an overshoot of classes and 'SparseM' focuses
     mainly on regression type problem, we provide a minimal set of
     sparse matrix functions fully functional for everyday spatial
     statistics life. There is however some emphasize on Markov chain
     Monte Carlo type calculations within the framework of (Gaussian)
     Markov random fields. 

     Emphasis is given on a comprehensive, simple, tutorial structure
     of the code. The code is S4 based but (in a tutorial spirit) the
     functions are in a S3 structure visible to the user (exported via
     'NAMESPACE').

     Sparseness is used when handling large matrices. Hence, care has
     been used to provide efficient and fast routines. Essentially, the
     functions do not transform the sparse structure into full matrices
     to use standard (available) functionality, followed by a back
     transform. We agree, more operators, functions, etc. should
     eventually be implemented.

     The packages 'fields' and 'spdep' use 'spam' as a required
     package.  

_A_u_t_h_o_r(_s):

     Reinhard Furrer

_R_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e_s:

     <URL: www.mines.edu/~rfurrer/software/spam/>

_S_e_e _A_l_s_o:

     See 'spam.class' for a detailed class description, 'spam' and
     'spam.ops' for creation, coercion and algebraic operations.
      'demo(package='spam')' lists available demos.
      Related packages are 'fields', 'Matrix' and 'SparseM.ontology'.

_E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s:

     ## Not run: 
     ## History of changes
     file.show(system.file("NEWS", package = "spam"))
     ## End(Not run)

