<h3>General</h3>
<ol>
+ <li>
+ New: Based on work by Cataldo Manigrasso and Luca Heltai
+ developed over the last few months on a branch, deal.II now
+ supports meshes that are embedded in higher space
+ dimensions. This allows, for example, to solve equations on
+ the surface of a sphere (e.g. to use boundary element
+ methods for exterior problems).
+ <br>
+ In practice, this is implemented by giving a large number
+ of classes a second template argument. Whereas the first one,
+ typically named <code>dim</code> still denotes the dimensionality
+ of the triangulation (e.g. <code>dim=2</code> for triangulations
+ of quadrilaterals, or <code>dim=3</code> for those made
+ up of hexahedra), the second template argument <code>spacedim</code>
+ denotes the dimensionality of the space this all is embedded in.
+ As a consequence, if one wants to have a triangulation of a
+ two-dimensional manifold in three-dimensional space, one would
+ use <code>dim=2, spacedim=3</code> as template arguments.
+ <br>
+ In order to remain backward compatible, the new second template
+ argument always has a default value that equals <code>dim</code>
+ meaning it is still sufficient to write <code>Triangulation@<2@></code>
+ if you intend two-dimensional triangulations of two-dimensional
+ domains.
+ <br>
+ (Cataldo Manigrasso, Luca Heltai 2008/12/05)
+ </p>
+
+ <li>
+ <p>
+ Changed: The various accessor classes have been rewritten entirely.
+ Where previously we had these accessor classes as separate
+ specializations for 1d, 2d, and 3d, each implementing the same
+ set of functions, these classes have now all been merged into
+ common templates TriaAccessor, DoFAccessor, and MGDoFAccessor,
+ along with the existing CellAccessor, DoFCellAccessor and
+ MGDoFCellAccessor. As a result, the documentation of individual
+ functions should now be much easier to find.
+ <br>
+ (WB 2008/12/05)
+ </p>
+
<li>
<p>
- Added: The deal.II configure script now autodetects SLEPc, an eigenvalue
+ New: The deal.II configure script now autodetects SLEPc, an eigenvalue
solver.
<br>
(Toby D. Young 2008/11/27)