spam is a collection of functions for sparse matrix
algebra.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.
Emphasis is given on a comprehensiv, 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 spatial package fields uses spam as a required
package.
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.