Report 24/06/2012
I rewrote the Scilab test functions the right way, as I hadn't understood the proper way a test script works.
However, I get "assertion failed" error when executing test_multi_lin_reg.tst.
I also wrote my first demos of these functions and committed them in the repo.
The demo_simple_lin_reg.sce works, but demo_multi_lin_reg.sce outputs error concerning some invalid index, so I am working on it.
I updated the doe.demo.gateway.sce script with the new demos.
Also, I moved the functions doe_alias.sci, doe_list_table in the macros directory. These are used for confounding patterns in fractional factorial designs.
License Issues
In open source software there have been created many licenses, to ensure copyrights.
Sometimes, these different licenses can create conflicts between the functions of a toolbox, and make its distribution complicated.
Scilab uses the Cecill license, which is compatible with the MIT license and the GNU LGPL license, but not the GNU GPL license.
If a function of a toolbox is licensed under GNU GPL, then all the other functions should become GNU GPL, as pointed out by Michael Baudin.
Also, another important issue in licensing is that the name of the author of a function must never be changed and remains in following versions, along with a copyright notice, the year of implementation and a link to the original source code.
In Scidoe toolbox:
- the functions isprime.sci, isscalar.sci, kurtosis.sci, randperm.sci, skewness.sci were licensed under GNU GPL, so they were removed.
lars.sci, crossvalidate.sci, cvplot.sci, normalize.sci, standardize.sci are written by Karl Skoglund and they are part of the pmtk3 Toolbox. It is released under the MIT license.
doe_faure.sci, doe_halton.sci, doe_hammersley.sci,doe_prime.sci, i4_bit_hi1.sci, i4_bit_lo0.sci, i4_xor.sci are written by John Burkandt. In the description of the functions in his webpage http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/m_src/m_src.html , he states that they are released under the the GNU LGPL license. However, these functions were removed from Scidoe, because they are either not used or they already exist in other toolboxes.
doe_yates.sci and doe_ryates,sci are written by Per A. Brodtkorb and are part of the Wafo toolbox WAFO. These two functions are released under GNU GPL licence.
I will contact the authors of the functions, to ask them if we can publish their code under the Cecill license.
If we get a positive answer, then the functions will be part of Scidoe and only a few changes on the code willl be needed to integrate them in Scilab. The names of the authors will remain on the functions, along with a clear copyright notice, the year the function was written by the particular author and a link to the original source code.
If not, then I will start working on substitute implementations.