An assessment of two approaches to variable metric methods

Two recent suggestions in the field of variable metric methods for function minimization are reviewed: the self-scaling method, first introduced by Oren and Luenberger, and the method of Biggs. The two proposals are considered both from a theoretical and computational aspect. They are compared with methods which use correction formulae from the Broyden one-parameter family, in particular the BFGS formula and the Fletcher switching strategy.