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============
Ceres Solver
============
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 3
:hidden:
features
building
tutorial
api
faqs
users
contributing
version_history
bibliography
license
Ceres Solver [#f1]_ is an open source C++ library for modeling and
solving large, complicated optimization problems. It is a feature
rich, mature and performant library which has been used in production
at Google since 2010. Ceres Solver can solve two kinds of problems.
1. `Non-linear Least Squares`_ problems with bounds constraints.
2. General unconstrained optimization problems.
.. _Non-linear Least Squares: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-linear_least_squares
Getting started
===============
* Download the `latest stable release
<http://ceres-solver.org/ceres-solver-1.10.0.tar.gz>`_ or clone the
Git repository for the latest development version.
.. code-block:: bash
git clone https://ceres-solver.googlesource.com/ceres-solver
* Read the :ref:`chapter-tutorial` and browse the :ref:`chapter-api`.
* Join the `mailing list
<https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/ceres-solver>`_
and ask questions.
* File bugs, feature requests on `GitHub
<https://github.com/ceres-solver/ceres-solver/issues>`_.
Cite Us
=======
If you use Ceres Solver for a publication, please cite it as::
@misc{ceres-solver,
author = "Sameer Agarwal and Keir Mierle and Others",
title = "Ceres Solver",
howpublished = "\url{http://ceres-solver.org}",
}
.. rubric:: Footnotes
.. [#f1] While there is some debate as to who invented the method of
Least Squares [Stigler]_, there is no questioning the fact
that it was `Carl Friedrich Gauss
<http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Gauss.html>`_
who brought it to the attention of the world. Using just 22
observations of the newly discovered asteroid `Ceres
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet)>`_, Gauss
used the method of least squares to correctly predict when
and where the asteroid will emerge from behind the Sun
[TenenbaumDirector]_. We named our solver after Ceres to
celebrate this seminal event in the history of astronomy,
statistics and optimization.