Comparison of four software packages applied to a scattering problem1Professor Ralph E. Kleinman, University of Delaware, USA, in memoriam.1

We investigate characteristic features of four different software packages by applying them to the numerical solution of a non-trivial physical problem in computer simulation, viz., scattering of waves from a sinusoidal boundary. The numerical method used is based on boundary collocation. This leads to highly ill-conditioned linear systems of equations, such that ensuing results may lose significant digits. The packages under consideration, each of which is based on a specific computer arithmetic, are the following: CADNA, PROFIL, MAPLE and MATLAB.