Libalgebra project template

This is an template for experimental code based on Libalgebra. Libalgebra is included as a submodule, so you will need to make sure to include --recurse-submodules when cloning this repo. Also included is a helper library which provides a fixture-like tool for writing code based on a specific Libalgebra environment. To access this, use the LIBALGEBRA_EXAMPLE macro, which will construct the required environment in which the code that follows can run. This fixture is based on the alg_types fixture found in Libalgebra. Here is a simple example of how it can be used:

#include <la_helpers/la_helpers.h>

LIBALGEBRA_EXAMPLE(2, 2, DPReal) {
    LIE x(LET(1), 1.0);
    
    auto y = exp(maps.l2t(x));
    
    SHOW(y);
}

The arguments for the macro are the width, maximum degree, and coefficient type (choice of SPReal, DPReal, and Rational). The SHOW macro, also provided in the la_helpers header, prints the name of the variable followed by the value.

The CMakeLists.txt includes everything you need to get started. It brings in Libalgebra from the submodule (cloned into extern/libalgebra) and also the helpers (found in la_helpers). You can create executable targets for any set of examples, constructed as above, from any number of cpp files. This should link the target la_helpers::library, or la_halpers::main which also provides a main function which runs all registered examples (this is highly recommended). There is an example target set up in the repository that you can use as an example.

Building

To build your examples, you should use the CMake command line interface, or your CMake-aware IDE. The commands you will need are as follows: (from the repo root directory)

cmake -GNinja -B build_dir -S .
cmake --build build_dir

You can remove or change the -GNinja flag to change the build system but Ninja is a good option if you have it installed. The build_dir option sets the place where the build files and ultimately the built targets will be placed. After compiling, you will be able to find your compiled executables inside build_dir, with the same name that appears inside the CMakeLists.txt. In the sample target in the template, you can run this using

build_dir/libalgebra_project_demo