new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/linear-algebra/norm.m
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+function retval = norm (x, p)
+
+# usage: norm (x, p)
+#
+# Compute the p-norm of x.
+#
+# If x is a matrix:
+#
+#   value of p     norm returns
+#   ----------     ------------
+#       1          1-norm, the largest column sum of x
+#       2          largest singular value of x
+#      Inf         infinity norm, the largest row sum of x
+#     "fro"        Frobenius norm of x, sqrt (sum (diag (x' * x)))
+#
+# If x is a vector or a scalar:
+#
+#   value of p     norm returns
+#   ----------     ------------
+#      Inf         max (abs (x))
+#     -Inf         min (abs (x))
+#     other        p-norm of x, sum (abs (x) .^ p) ^ (1/p)
+#
+# If the second argument is missing, p = 2 is assumed.
+#
+# See also: cond, svd
+
+  if (nargin < 1 || nargin > 2)
+    error ("usage: norm (x [, p])")
+  endif
+
+# Do we have a vector or matrix as the first argument?
+
+  if (rows (x) == 1 || columns (x) == 1)
+
+    if (nargin == 2)
+      if (isstr (p))
+        if (strcmp (p, "fro"))
+          retval = sqrt (sum (diag (x' * x)));
+        else
+          error ("norm: unrecognized norm");
+        endif
+      else
+	if (p == Inf)
+	  retval = max (abs (x));
+	elseif (p == -Inf)
+	  retval = min (abs (x));
+	else
+	  retval = sum (abs (x) .^ p) ^ (1/p);
+	endif
+      endif
+    elseif (nargin == 1)
+      retval = sum (abs (x) .^ 2) ^ 0.5;
+    endif
+
+  else
+
+    if (nargin == 2)
+      if (isstr (p))
+        if (strcmp (p, "fro"))
+          retval = sqrt (sum (diag (x' * x)));
+        else
+          error ("norm: unrecognized norm");
+        endif
+      else
+        if (p == 1)
+          retval = max (sum (abs (real (x)) + abs (imag (x))));
+        elseif (p == 2)
+          s = svd (x);
+          retval = s (1);
+        elseif (p == Inf)
+          xp = x';
+          retval = max (sum (abs (real (xp)) + abs (imag (xp))));
+        endif
+      endif
+    elseif (nargin == 1)
+      s = svd (x);
+      retval = s (1);
+    endif
+
+  endif
+
+endfunction