comphom: A program to compute homology groups
Tags: news, projects
I released a program that should have been added to this site quite some time ago: comphom. It is a simple demo application that computes homology groups from simplicial triangulations.
People who have not yet heard anything about topology might not enjoy this as much as I do. Anyway, if you happen to stumble over any triangulation (such as those given by F. Lutz on his Manifold Page), comphom will compute the homology groups and write them to a file.
The program is available on my GitHub page.
Let me outline how to use the program (the program package contains a README which is slightly more precise):
- Compile the program via
make. The Makefile should work for any POSIX-compatible operating system. - Download a triangulation from the Manifold Page (use the outdated lexicographic format).
- Use the Perl script lex_convert.pl to convert the files into the format comphom understands:
perl lex_convert.pl --input <file> - Start comphom:
comphom --input <file>.ct [--output <file>.out]
It is also possible to compute homology groups for arbitrary triangulations. Just see the README for more information.
As always, I am grateful for any feedback about this particular project. Contact details are available elsewhere on this site (you can also find contact details in the source code).