Speden is a computer program that reconstructs the electron density of single
particles from their x-ray diffraction patterns, using a single-particle
adaptation of the Holographic Method in crystallography. (Szoke, A., Szoke, H.,
and Somoza, J.R., 1997. Acta Cryst. A53, 291-313.) The method, like its parent,
is unique that it does not rely on ``back'' transformation from the diffraction
pattern into real space and on interpolation within measured data. It is
designed to deal successfully with sparse, irregular, incomplete and noisy
data. It is also designed to use prior information for ensuring sensible
results and for reliable convergence. This article describes the theoretical
basis for the reconstruction algorithm, its implementation and quantitative
results of tests on synthetic and experimentally obtained data. The program
could be used for determining the structure of radiation tolerant samples and,
eventually, of large biological molecular structures without the need for
crystallization.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure