AS++ T-splines: Linear independence and approximation

In this paper, we define analysis-suitable++ (AS++) T-splines which include analysis-suitable (AS) T-splines as a special case and maintain all the good mathematical properties as AS T-splines. We prove that AS++ T-splines are always linear independent regardless of the knot values and show that the classical construction of the dual basis for tensor-product B-splines and AS T-splines can be generalized to AS++ T-spline spaces. We also discuss how all of these issues pave the way to a mathematical theory for AS++ T-splines.