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Section: New Software and Platforms
ISOTOP
Topology and geometry of planar algebraic curves
Keywords: Topology - Curve plotting - Geometric computing
Isotop is a Maple software for computing the topology of an algebraic plane curve, that is, for computing an arrangement of polylines isotopic to the input curve. This problem is a necessary key step for computing arrangements of algebraic curves and has also applications for curve plotting.
This software, registered at the APP in June 2011, has been developed since 2007 in collaboration with F. Rouillier from Inria Paris. The distributed version is based on the method described in [3], which presents several improvements over previous methods. In particular, our approach does not require generic position. This version is competitive with other implementations (such as AlciX and Insulate developed at MPII Saarbrücken, Germany and top developed at Santander Univ., Spain). It performs similarly for small-degree curves and performs significantly better for higher degrees, in particular when the curves are not in generic position.
We are currently working on an improved version integrating a new bivariate polynomial solver based on several of our recent results published in [11]. This version is not yet distributed.
Via the Inria ADT FastTrack funding, Eric Biagioli has joined the project in November 2016 for 6 months. He is porting the maple code to C code and enhancing the visualization. This work will prepare for a better diffusion of the software via a webserver and a transfert to Maplesoft with which Inria has signed a contract in April 2016.