On Wed, 2015-02-04 at 17:17 -0600, Benjamin Rentschler wrote: > To Whom it may Concern, > > I was reading through the Scilab licensing agreement for version 5.5.1 > and I came across the statement below. > > "In this respect, the risks associated with loading, using, modifying > and/or developing or reproducing the software by the user are brought to > the user's attention, given its Free Software status, which may make it > complicated to use, with the result that its use is reserved for > developers and experienced professionals having in-depth computer > knowledge." > > Normally I would not consider myself to be a developer or an > experienced computer professional with in depth computer knowledge. > However, since I would like to use Scilab to assist me with projects, > I was wondering if I fit under this definition as stated in the > agreement.
It reads to me like a legally defensible way of saying "you're on your own, bub". I'm pretty active on the comp.dsp newsgroup on USENET, and there seems to be a small but significant minority of people -- either students or young practitioners -- who cannot seem to distinguish between true knowledge of DSP and what commands to type into Matlab (Scilab, too, roughly in proportion to its installed base compared to Matlab). Some of these people get seriously bent out of shape when you tell them that they need to apply a pencil to paper, and to guide that pencil with deep thought and consideration, rather than just picking the right Matlab command to cough up an answer. That clause reads to me like an answer to those folks. Any tool that you use should be treated as such, and for anything really important you should do the engineering from at least two directions (this is why development for life-critical systems is slow and expensive). So no matter what the tool is, whether it be Scilab, Maxima, or your brain and a pencil, you shouldn't just trust the tool to cough up the right answer: I think that's what they're trying to say. -- Tim Wescott www.wescottdesign.com Control & Communications systems, circuit & software design. Phone: 503.631.7815 Cell: 503.349.8432 _______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.scilab.org/mailman/listinfo/users
