A Practical Guide to Splines

This book is based on the author's experience with calculations involving polynomial splines. It presents those parts of the theory that are especially useful in calculations and stresses the representation of splines as weighted sums of B-splines. This revised edition has been typeset, and all figures have been redrawn. In a major change, the B-spline theory is now developed directly from the recurrence relations without recourse to divided differences. Almost all formal statements are now provided with proofs, and many minor changes have been made throughout, including the correction of errors.

From the reviews of the first edition:

MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS

"This book is intended as a thorough presentation of those items from the theory and application of spline functions which are in a state that permits them to be offered to a prospective user under the title the author has chosen for his present publication. At several places even the expert, however, will find things elucidated in a way new to him. There are some fifty FORTRAN (sub) programs throughout the book together with an abundance of worked-out examples and many helpful comments (also in the case of pitfalls in computation) which reflect the author's ample experience in calculating with splines."

"This book is a classic reference in spline theory. It will be of great benefit to students as an introduction to the subject as well as to experts in the field." (Gerlind Plonka-Hoch, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2003 f)

"This book is a classical one with respect to calculating polynomial splines. … The author is an outstanding spline expert. Thus the book ought to belong to every university library and to anyone interested in spline theory and applications." (Helmuth Späth, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 987 (12), 2002)