Plex is a software package for computing persistent homology of finite
simplicial complexes, often generated from point cloud data. This is the
third version of Plex, and because it is written in Java it is often
referred to as JPlex. The newest Plex can be run in MATLAB, like the
previous versions, but it can also run in a standalone mode, using an
integrated Java interpreter, called
Beanshell (our thanks to the author,
Patrick Niemeyer, for allowing us to repackage the interpreter with our
library). The initial goals of this rewrite of Plex were to fix several
longstanding memory management problems, and to make Plex easy to install.
These goals were met, but our experience is that this new version of Plex
is also faster and capable of running larger cases than the previous
versions, so we encourage all users to make the switch, which requires very
little effort. The complete library is in a single jar file that is
currently less than .5 megabytes, including the Beanshell
interpreter, and requires no compilation. You must, however, have access to
a version 1.5 or later java runtime, either through MATLAB or directly
through a command line. This is explained in more detail either in the
tutorials or in the online documentation.
In addition to the library, we have a tutorial for users wanting to run it standalone, and another tutorial for people wishing to run plex via MATLAB. This version of Plex can easily be extended by Java programmers, and we have a javadoc tree for the library here. (The complete source code for this library will be made available soon.) The companion files for the tutorials are: here for the matlab version and here for the standalone version.
A version of the Beanshell manual may be found here, and the latest and most complete versions of the Beanshell doc are here.
For an older, C++ based version of Plex, check here.
Please direct bug reports to Mikael Vejdemo Johansson.