Subject: Re: [bug#61204] Scilab scientific software

From: Simon Tournier <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2023 16:57:19 +0100

Hi,

On Wed, 01 Feb 2023 at 02:07, Nicolas Graves via Guix-patches via <[email-masked]> wrote:

> I took a job where I have to use the scientific software suite Scilab in
> an old version (5.4.1). I'll probably update it during this job.

Congrats!

> I managed to package this version in the non-graphical version of Scilab
> 5.5.X versions this weekend.

Cool!  Well, I was tweaking and reviewing the series when…

> It needs some old software libraries (metis@4, suitesparse@3), which
> releases are not even in guix's history, and some compilation errors
> fixes.

…I see two issues about licenses:

 1. Metis 4 is not free software
 2. Scilab is Cecill v2.1 and not gpl2 as the patch suggests.

About #2, the fix is easy. :-)

About #1, it will be difficult.

Well, maybe these 3 old versions of Scilab could go to the channel
guix-science [1] or guix-science-non-free [2].

If Scilab 6 works with Metis 5, then there is no issue with the licenses
and could be included.

WDYT?

1: https://github.com/guix-science/guix-science
2: https://github.com/guix-science/guix-science-nonfree

Cheers,
simon