The most significant feature of the PDE Toolbox is its graphical user interface (GUI). If you have a little experience in PDEs, you can draw a physical region, set up a problem with its boundary conditions, and solve it within hours of installing the package on your system. "The GUI gives you access to up to 90 percent of the Toolbox's total functionality," says Driscoll. Other PDE systems written in the C or Fortran programming languages require substantially more effort--usually measured in days-- to describe the geometry and learn the specific calling interfaces.
展开▼
