Module minimize 

Minimizing a merit over a point the caller is free to choose: the nearest point of a curve or a surface. The point found is a choice, not an enclosure of a true minimum — what it is chosen for is measured at it afterwards — so the merit is a plain number.

Functions

descend

Damped descent from start, at most steps steps. direction(x) gives the step from x as the point it leads to at a scale of the full step (None where there is none to take); a step is taken at the first of 1, 1/2, 1/4, … (halvings of them) at which it definitely lowers merit, and the descent stops where none does. What is returned is never worse than start.