Re: gEDA-user: Notes from last night's Free Dog meeting (11.3.2005) . . . .

[sdb@xxxxxxxxxx (Stuart Brorson)]

I realized I didn't finish this section in my hast to get this 
out. . . . .

     John LaChapelle:
>    --  Talked about Matlab vs. Scilab vs. Octave.  John has used
>        Scicos, the Scilab signal processing toolbox (similar to 
>        Matlab's Simulink).  He said it was reasonably useful, although 
>        he did have a specific bug involving taking square roots which
>        inhibited his ability to do some simulations he needed to do.
> 
>        More generally, the Matlab vs. Scilab thing illustrated the way
>        in which people tend to use F/OSS applications:  many of them
>        are good enough to handle 90% of ordinary work.  Since they are
>        license-hassle free, people tend to load them up on their
>        laptops. . .

. . . and use them on the run, at home, or anywhere away from their
workplaces where they presumably have the expensive, commerical apps
running.  Since the open-source stuff is good for 90% of the tasks
required, you can use it in addition to the commercial app when you
can't get a licence.  Although I personally use Scilab almost 100% of
the time, John uses Matlab/Simulink at work where he can get a
licence, but then uses Scilab/Scicos when he is on the road.
Unfettered portability is another advantage of open-source
engineering/scientific software.    

Stuart