BLAS for Debian
----------------------

This is the Fortran 77 reference implementation of the BLAS (Basic
Linear Algebra Subroutines) standard found at netlib.  The C interface
has been incorporated into the library as well -- see
/usr/share/doc/blas-doc/cinterface.pdf.  A few minor changes were made
to the crotg.f and zrotg.f files to use a separate complex absolute
value (c_abs.f and z_abs.f) in place of the Fortran intrinsic.  This
is because at the time of this writing, g77 does not supply a PIC
version of libg2c.

Patches to the tester programs made in the course of development of
atlas have also been incorporated.  By in large, the purpose of the
patches is to allow correct error reporting in case of failures in the
tests.

The testers are dynamically linked, and can so be used to test any
shared blas-compatible library, such as that provided by the atlas
packages.  For example,

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib ldd /usr/lib/blas/xsblat2 
	(should show /usr/lib/libblas.so.2)

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib /usr/lib/blas/xsblat2 
	< /usr/share/doc/blas-doc/examples/sblat2d

(apt-get install atlas2-base)

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/atlas ldd /usr/lib/blas/xsblat2 
	(should show /usr/lib/atlas/libblas.so.2)

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/atlas /usr/lib/blas/xsblat2 
	< /usr/share/doc/blas-doc/examples/sblat2d

When installing the atlas packages in conjunction with this blas
package, your system should be setup to use the fastest blas library
your system can run by default, i.e. in the absence of any
LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.


Architecture Specific Notes:
---------------------------

Due to a current loader bug on hppa, the tests on the 'error exits' of
the blas routines has been removed from the suite of tests performed
at compile time, and from the sample tester input files supplied in
the blas-test package.

 -- Camm Maguire <camm@enhanced.com>, 20020213

