about.html

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title: About
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<p>The Nutils project is a collaborative programming effort aimed
at the creation of a modern, general purpose Python programming library for
finite element applications. The nutils are under active development, and are
presently in use for academic research by Phd and MSc students.</p>

<p>Identifying features are a heavily object oriented
design, strict separation of topology and geometry, and CAS-like function
arithmetic such as found in maple and mathematica. Primary design goals are:</p>

<ul>
<li><b>Readability</b>. Finite element scripts built on top of nutils should
focus on work flow and maths, unobscured by finite element infrastructure.</li>
<li><b>Flexibility</b>. The nutils are tools; they do not enforce a strict
work flow. Missing components can be added locally without loosing
interoperability.</li>
<li><b>Compatibility</b>. Exposed objects are of native python type or allow
for easy conversion to leverage third party tools.</li>
<li><b>Speed</b>. Nutils are self-optimizing and support parallel
computation. Typical scripting inefficiencies are discouraged by design.</li>
</ul>

<p>For more information about the project contact <a
href="mailto:info@nutils.org">info@nutils.org</a>, or dive right in with the
example scripts in our <a href="https://github.com/nutils/nutils">github</a>
repository.</p>