Numerical methods for ordinary differential equations in the 20th century (Q1841941)

The paper is a survey following many of the main strands in the development of numerical methods for general initial value problems, stiff systems, or special problem types. The early contributions of Bashforth, Adams and Runge, together with an introduction to the fundamental work of Euler form the subject of a first section. Further sections deal either with specific periods of time or with contributions with a unifying scheme: Heun, Nyström and Moulton papers, Milne's device, Taylor series, modern theory of linear multistep methods and Runge-Kutta methods. Nontraditional methods are also revised. A special section is dedicated to stiff problems, and another to the beginnings of differential equation software. The last section treats some special problems.