Towards Numerical Assistants - Trust, Measurement, Community, and Generality for the Numerical Workbench.

The last few years have seen an explosion of work on tools that address numerical error in scientific, mathematical, and engineering software. The resulting tools can provide essential guidance to expert non-experts: scientists, mathematicians, and engineers for whom mathematical computation is essential but who may have little formal training in numerical methods. It is now time for these tools to move into practice. Practitioners need a “numerical workbench” that not only succeeds as a research artifact but as a daily tool. We describe our experience adapting Herbie, a tool for numerical error repair, from a research prototype to a reliable workhorse for daily use. In particular, we focus on how we worked to increase user trust and use internal measurement to polish the tool. Looking more broadly, we show that community development and an investment in the generality of our tools, such as through the FPBench project, will better support users and strengthen our research community.