Scilab

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Scilab

A Screenshot of Scilab Running
Developer:	INRIA
Latest release:	4.0 / February 2006
OS:	Linux, UNIX, Windows
Use:	Technical computing
License:	claimed "open source" (not approved by OSI), no commercial redistribution of modified versions permitted
Website:	www.scilab.org

Scilab is a numerical computational package developed by INRIA and ENPC in France. It is a high level programming language, loosely based on the C programming language, and similar in functionality to MATLAB and is freely available to download. The program enables users to compute a wide range of mathematical operations from relatively simple operations such as multiplication to high level operations such as correlation and complex arithmetic. The software is often used for signal processing, statistical analysis, image enhancement, fluid dynamics simulations etc.

Although the Scilab web page describes it as "open source" software, it does not satisfy the Open Source Definition as published by the Open Source Initiative, because Scilab's license does not permit commercial redistribution of modified versions [1]. For the same reason, Scilab is not free software according to the definition of the Free Software Foundation, although it is distributed free of charge.

Scilab is very similar to MATLAB, however there are slight differences in the syntax used in functions. The help files in scilab are far inferior to those in MATLAB and functions are often harder to implement. In short, MATLAB is far easier to learn for those with minimal exposure to computer programming. A user needs a fair amount of programming experience in C or MATLAB to efficiently use Scilab. However, Scilab is freely available, whilst MATLAB is over £1000 ($1800) per licence. Due to the large cost of MATLAB, Scilab's equivalent functionality and the fact that sources are available, many high level programmers are happy to use Scilab instead of MATLAB to save money.

Scilab has been widely used in several industry and research projects, and many contributions have been made by users. The syntax is similar to MATLAB but the two are not completely compatible, though there is a converter included in Scilab for Matlab=>Scilab Conversions.