Least Squares has been around for a long time, but has only been widely available to surveyors since the advent of the desktop computer.
Least Squares analysis of survey observations is the “great divide” between generations of surveyors. Here is a nice editorial in American Surveyor magazine discussing the matter.
- Adjustment Computations: Spatial Data Analysis (Ghilani & Wolf)
- Grontmij MOVE3
- Primacode Technologies Transform least squares software
- Transform least squares software — professional surveyor magazine
- PC Software from the NGS
- Columbus network adjustment software
- Quantian Scientific Computing Environment — includes GRASS GIS
and clusterKnoppix ( openMosix cheap clustering) - Wolfram MathWorld extensive math resource