test release 1.12.90

[Brian Gough <bjg@gnu.org>]

There is a new test release for gsl-1.13 available

  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gsl/gsl-1.12.90.tar.gz
  ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gsl/gsl-1.12.90.tar.gz.sig

Please try it out and report any problems here.  Thanks.  I've
upgraded libtool, autoconf and automake to the latest versions.

-- 
Brian Gough

* What is new in gsl-1.13:

** Fixed a bug in gsl_multimin_fminimizer_nmsimplex2 where the center
   and size of the simplex were not updated on contract-by-best steps,
   causing failures in convergence. [bug #27180]

** Added new functions to set MISER and VEGAS Monte Carlo integration
   parameters, and to examine VEGAS chi-squared value and intermediate
   results.

** Added the function gsl_bspline_greville_abscissa to compute
   Greville abscissae for B-splines.

** The cumulative distribution functions gsl_cdf_gumbel1_{P,Q} should
   now handle a larger range of parameters without underflow and
   overflow.

** The header file gsl_const_cgs.h now emits a warning that it is
   deprecated, applications should use gsl_const_cgsm.h instead.

** The Pochhammer functions gsl_sf_poch(a,x) and gsl_sf_lnpoch(a,x) now
   handle the special cases where a and a+x are zero or negative
   integers.

** The confluent hypergeometric function gsl_sf_hyperg_U (a,b,x) now
   handles some cases where x=0. The case where 1+a-b is a negative
   integer no longer returns an error [bug #22859] and the incorrect
   termination of the series in certain cases is fixed [bug #26706].

** Added a new function gsl_poly_eval_derivs to evaluate a polynomial
   and its derivatives simultaneously.

** Added a new univariate minimisation algorithm
   gsl_min_fminimizer_quad_golden which is a variant of Brent's
   algorithm with safeguarded step-length adjustment.

** Added a new Nelder-Mead minimiser gsl_multimin_fminimizer_nmsimplex2rand
   which uses a randomly oriented simplex rather than one fixed on
   the coordinate axes [bug #25077]

** The texinfo file now uses the dircategory "Software libraries" from
   the Free Software Directory, as recommended in the Texinfo manual.

** The function gsl_ran_exponential now includes zero in its output
   range. [bug #25039]

** All functions for freeing allocated memory now accept a NULL
   pointer, following the standard C convention for free(). [bug
   #25319]

** The function gsl_sum_levin_u_accel now handles the special case
   c_0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + .... that occurs when summing power series
   c_n*x^n with x=0. [bug #26807]

** The functions gsl_linalg_LU_solve, gsl_linalg_LU_svx,
   gsl_linalg_LU_refine, gsl_linalg_LU_invert and their complex
   equivalents now return an error for singular matrices.

** The multifit LMDER hybrid solvers now check the return code of the
   user-supplied function in the gsl_multifit_fdfsolver_set
   method. [bug #26871]

** Improved the implementation of gsl_ran_discrete_preproc to avoid
   internal errors due to inconsistencies from excess precision on
   some platforms. [bug #26502]

** Corrected gsl_sf_hyperg_2F1(a,b,c,x) to not give a domain error in
   the case where c is a negative integer and the series terminates
   with a finite result.

** The C99 inline keyword is now supported, in addition to the
   previously supported GNU-style inline.

** Modified gsl_poly_complex_solve_cubic and gsl_poly_solve_cubic to
   avoid returning NaNs in cases where excess precision causes a
   change in the number of roots. 

** Fixed incorrect length check in gsl_blas_drotm. [bug #26503]

** Fixed gsl_odeiv_step_gear2 to restore y on step failure

** gsl_odeiv_evolve_apply now restores the correct value of t on step
   failures [bug #26255].

** Using make install prefix=DIR now puts correct paths in package
   config files gsl-config and gsl.pc

** Modified gsl_monte_vegas to work around pow() function inaccuracies
   on MinGW [bug #25413].

** Increased the number of terms in gsl_sf_mathieu_a and
   gsl_sf_mathieu_b to improve convergence in difficult regions [bug
   #25075]