surf is a tool to visualize some real algebraic
geometry: plane algebraic curves, algebraic surfaces and hyperplane
sections of surfaces. surf is script driven and has
(optionally) a nifty GUI using the Gtk widget set.
The algorithms should be stable enough not to be confused by
curve/surface singularities in codimension greater than one and the
degree of the surface or curve. This has been achieved quite a bit.
We have drawn curves of degree up to 30 and surfaces of degree up to
20 successfully. However, there are examples of curves/surfaces of
lower degree where surf fails to produce perfect images. This
happens especially if the equation of the curve/surface is not
reduced. Best results are achieved using reduced equations. On the
other hand, surf displays the Fermat-curves accurately for
degree up to 98.
surf is free software distributed under the GNU General
Public License (GPL).
Go here to download surf
or visit the SourceForge
project page!
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