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+## Copyright (C) 2009, 2010 Kai Habel
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {[@var{cx}, @var{cy}, @var{cz}, @var{v}] =} curl (@var{x}, @var{y}, @var{z}, @var{fx}, @var{fy}, @var{fz})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {[@var{cz}, @var{v}] =} curl (@var{x}, @var{y}, @var{fx}, @var{fy})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {[@dots{}] =} curl (@var{fx}, @var{fy}, @var{fz})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {[@dots{}] =} curl (@var{fx}, @var{fy})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {@var{v} =} curl (@dots{})
+## Calculate curl of vector field given by the arrays @var{fx}, @var{fy}, and @var{fz}
+## or @var{fx}, @var{fy} respectively. 
+## @iftex
+## @tex
+## $$ curl F(x,y,z) = \left( {\partial{d} \over \partial{y}} F_z - {\partial{d} \over \partial{z}} F_y, {\partial{d} \over \partial{z}} F_x - {\partial{d} \over \partial{x}} F_z, {\partial{d} \over \partial{x}} F_y - {\partial{d} \over \partial{y}} F_x \right)$$
+## @end tex
+## @end iftex
+## @ifnottex
+## @example
+## @group
+##                   / d         d       d         d       d         d     \
+## curl F(x,y,z)  =  | -- Fz  -  -- Fy,  -- Fx  -  -- Fz,  -- Fy  -  -- Fx |
+##                   \ dy        dz      dz        dx      dx        dy    /
+## @end group
+## @end example
+## @end ifnottex
+## The coordinates of the vector field can be given by the arguments @var{x}, @var{y}, @var{z}
+## or @var{x}, @var{y} respectively.
+## @var{v} calculates the scalar component of the angular velocity vector in direction
+## of the z-axis for two-dimensional input. For three-dimensional input the scalar
+## rotation is calculated at each grid point in direction of the vector field
+## at that point.
+## @seealso{divergence, gradient, del2}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: Kai Habel <kai.habel@gmx.de>
+
+function varargout = curl (varargin)
+
+  fidx = 1;
+  if (nargin == 2)
+    sz = size (varargin{fidx});
+    dx = (1:sz(2))(:);
+    dy = (1:sz(1))(:);
+  elseif (nargin == 3)
+    sz = size (varargin{fidx});
+    dx = (1:sz(2))(:);
+    dy = (1:sz(1))(:);
+    dz = (1:sz(3))(:);
+  elseif (nargin == 4)
+    fidx = 3;
+    dx = varargin{1}(1,:);
+    dy = varargin{2}(:,1);
+  elseif (nargin == 6)
+    fidx = 4;
+    dx = varargin{1}(1,:,1)(:);
+    dy = varargin{2}(:,1,1)(:);
+    dz = varargin{3}(1,1,:)(:);
+  else
+    print_usage();
+  endif
+    
+  if ((nargin == 4) || (nargin == 2))
+    if (!size_equal (varargin{fidx}, varargin{fidx + 1}))
+      error ("curl: size of x and y must match.");
+    elseif (ndims (varargin{fidx}) != 2)
+      error ("curl: expected two-dimensional matrices x and y.");
+    elseif ((length (dx) != columns (varargin{fidx}))
+         || (length (dy) != rows (varargin{fidx})))
+      error ("curl: size of dx and dy must match the respective dimension of x and y");
+    endif
+
+    dFx_dy = gradient (varargin{fidx}.', dy, dx).';
+    dFy_dx = gradient (varargin{fidx + 1}, dx, dy);
+    rot_z = dFy_dx - dFx_dy;
+    av = rot_z / 2;
+    if (nargout == 0)
+      av
+    elseif (nargout == 1)
+      varargout{1} = av;
+    elseif (nargout == 2)
+      varargout{1} = rot_z;
+      varargout{2} = av;
+    else
+      error ("curl: number of output arguments must be 1 or 2.")
+    endif
+
+  elseif ((nargin == 6) || (nargin == 3))
+    if (!size_equal (varargin{fidx}, varargin{fidx + 1}, varargin{fidx + 2}))
+      error ("curl: size of x, y, and z must match")
+    elseif (ndims (varargin{fidx}) != 3)
+      error ("curl: expected two-dimensional matrices x, y, and z.");
+    elseif ((length (dx) != size (varargin{fidx}, 2))
+         || (length (dy) != size (varargin{fidx}, 1))
+         || (length (dz) != size (varargin{fidx}, 3)))
+      error ("curl: size of dx, dy, and dz must match the respective dimesion of x, y, and z.");
+    endif
+
+    [~, dFx_dy, dFx_dz] = gradient (varargin{fidx}, dx, dy, dz);
+    [dFy_dx, ~, dFy_dz] = gradient (varargin{fidx + 1}, dx, dy, dz);
+    [dFz_dx, dFz_dy] = gradient (varargin{fidx + 2}, dx, dy, dz);
+    rot_x = dFz_dy - dFy_dz;
+    rot_y = dFx_dz - dFz_dx;
+    rot_z = dFy_dx - dFx_dy;
+    l = sqrt(varargin{fidx}.^2 + varargin{fidx + 1}.^2 + varargin{fidx + 2}.^2);
+    av = (rot_x .* varargin{fidx} +
+          rot_y .* varargin{fidx + 1} +
+          rot_z .* varargin{fidx + 2}) ./ (2 * l);
+
+    if (nargout == 0)
+      varargout{1} = av;
+    elseif (nargout == 1)
+      varargout{1} = av;
+    elseif (nargout == 2)
+      varargout{1} = rot_x;
+      varargout{2} = rot_y;
+    elseif (nargout == 3)
+      varargout{1} = rot_x;
+      varargout{2} = rot_y;
+      varargout{3} = rot_z;
+    elseif (nargout == 4)
+      varargout{1} = rot_x;
+      varargout{2} = rot_y;
+      varargout{3} = rot_z;
+      varargout{4} = av;
+    else
+      error ("curl: number of output arguments must be smaller than 5");
+    endif
+  endif
+
+endfunction
+
+%!test
+%! [X,Y]=meshgrid(-20:20,-22:22);
+%! av = curl(2*(X-Y),Y);
+%! assert(all(av(:)==1));
+%! [cz,av] = curl(2*(X-Y),Y);
+%! assert(all(cz(:)==2));
+%! assert(all(av(:)==1));
+%! [cz,av] = curl(X/2,Y/2,2*(X-Y),Y);
+%! assert(all(cz(:)==4));
+%! assert(all(av(:)==2));
+%! assert(size_equal(X,Y,cz,av));
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