GrAL—the grid algorithms library

Dedicated library support for mesh-level geometry components, central to numerical PDE solution, is scarce. We claim that the situation is due to the inadequacy of traditional design techniques for complex and variable data representations typical for meshes. As a solution, we introduce an approach based on generic programming, implemented in the C++ library GrAL, whose algorithms are able to run on any mesh representation. We present the core design of GrAL and highlight some of its generic components. Finally, we discuss some practical issues of generic libraries, in particular efficiency and usability.