Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2009
We show how a well known algorithm to compute solutions of a second order recursion which are unstable both in forward and in backward direction, can be related to a number of other methods. They are: order reduction, invariant imbedding and decoupling based on triangularization. It is shown that these methods in this order form an increasingly general approach to solve the problem. In particular this means that the stability of the first three algorithms can be understood from the theory that has been established for the decoupling algorithm. In this way one does not need to investigate the stability of the large sparse system which is often related to the first method.