[Scilab-users] News: Scilab 6 Beta, VISA Toolbox, Embedded World 2016
amonmayr at laas.fr
amonmayr at laas.fr
Tue Feb 16 12:21:12 CET 2016
Le 02/16/2016 11:55 AM, Eric Dubois a écrit :
>
> Hello
>
> Thank you for this release and the improvements this Scilab version
> contains.
>
> I have however a major concern with the change of behaviour of the
> addition or subtraction of a null matrix to another matrix. As
> explained in the release notes, []+a will now result in [] whereas it
> resulted in a in previous versions.
>
> This means that developments made under older Scilab versions will
> have to be adapted to Scilab 6.0. This is potentially a huge task,
> since all additions or subtractions in the programs have a priori to
> be checked. Needless to say, additions and subtractions are very
> pervasive operations in numerical programs. And since all additions
> and subtractions cannot be checked in a systematic way (in my toolbox,
> I have more than 20 000 of them!), the needed modifications will be
> made over a long period of time, at the rhythm of the discovery of
> bugs by a developer or its users.
>
> More worrying still, not all additions or subtractions involving null
> matrices will generate errors when switching from Scilab 5 or older to
> Scilab 6: for example, z=size([a+1 y],1) applied to the null matrix a
> will simply add 1 in Scilab 6 to the result of Scilab 5, without
> generating errors. The attentive user will be alerted by the warning
> message generated by Scilab 6, but the inattentive one may not notice
> it or fully understand its consequences. So it may lead some users to
> generate wrong results without being aware of it, which should be very
> embarrassing for the provider of the programs used and for
> Scilab-enterprises itself.
>
> Another problem will come from users sticking to Scilab older
> versions: as for me I have regularly e-mails from users that work for
> a reason or another on old Scilab versions (5.3.3 at the moment for
> instance): avoiding problems to these users will constrain the
> adaptation, prevent from using all capabilities of Scilab and
> complicate the code. With my example, it will be necessary to
> introduce a conditional such as:
>
> if isempty(x) then
>
> z=size(y,1)+1
>
> else
>
> z=size([a y],1)
>
> end
>
> And this will apply to new programs as well, which will need so much
> care that, I fear, some cases will be missed by even the most careful
> programmer. And in this case users working with older Scilab versions
> will not even be alerted by a warning message.
>
> Moreover, considering the importance of the change, it is all the more
> surprising that it has not been announced in advance, as was the
> –good– practice for previous changes, even minor (such as the
> replacement of x^n by x .^n when x was a vector, a change that a)
> affected much less numerous lines of code b) did entail a simple
> replacement of some ^ by .^ c) had no side effect).
>
> Don’t other Scilab users share my concern?
>
Well, I understand your concern.
However, I buy the fact that this change will make the language more
consistent.
Indeed, "ms=m+s" where m is a matrix and s a scalar gives a matrix ms of
same size than m in most cases (ie when m is not empty).
It thus makes sense that adding a scalar to an empty matrix returns an
empty matrix.
This is also the default behavior with other similar languages like
octave, matlab, julia, so it makes sense.
I think the old behavior was kind of weird.
But you are right that this is a major change that will introduce subtle
and hard to find bugs.
We should keep in mind that it's a major change (5.x->6.x) and I think
the last one (4.x->5.x) was even worse in terms of backward compatibility!
Cheers,
Antoine
> Regards
>
> Éric.
>
> PS: I find a little bit provocative the sentence in the release notes:
> “To simplify the transition of your code base during beta, a specific
> warning is issued when such operation is detected”. With a little
> exaggeration, it sounds like digging the Great canyon and saying to
> people now separated by it: to help you, we will give you beach
> shovels so that you can build a bridge between the two rivers of the
> canyon...
>
>
> 2016-02-15 16:35 GMT+01:00 Yann DEBRAY
> <yann.debray at scilab-enterprises.com
> <mailto:yann.debray at scilab-enterprises.com>>:
>
> Hello Scilab user,
>
> It has been a while since we last shared news with you. Here are
> some recent updates we hope you will like.
>
>
> Scilab 6 Beta
>
> Scilab 6.0 is a major new release of Scilab, the open source
> modeling & simulation platform. This beta version is a preview for
> all users, commercial as well as community.
>
> *What's new: *
>
> --> New computation coreenabling bigger data sets
> --> Improved Xcos allowing larger models
> --> Utilities for development productivity (debugger, profiler and
> coverage)
>
> To provide relevant informations to the user, we also introduced a
> new view called "Newsfeed".
> The release will come soon, so feel free to give us feedback about
> your experience.
>
> Find out more <http://www.scilab.org/community/news/scilab-6-beta-1>
>
>
> Signal acquisition and instrument control
> with the Scilab VISA Toolbox (beta version)
>
>
> In partnership with National Instruments, we have developed a
> Scilab interface for measurement devices from leading
> manufacturers (National Instruments, Agilent/HP, ... )
>
> Here is the first version of this VISA toolbox for signal
> acquisition and instrument control. This is a beta version: your
> feedbacks are welcome.
>
> TheVirtual Instrument Software Architecture
> <https://www.ni.com/visa/>(VISA) is a standard for configuring,
> programming, and troubleshooting instrumentation systems
> comprising GPIB, VXI, PXI, Serial, Ethernet, and/or USB
> interfaces. VISA provides the programming interface between the
> hardware and development environments.
>
> Find out more <http://www.scilab.org/scilab/modules/visa-toolbox>
>
>
> Event Embedded World // 23-25 February 2016, Nuremberg
>
> Starting with the largest embedded systems' event of the
> year:Embedded World 2016 <https://www.embedded-world.de/en>
> 23 - 25 February 2016 in Nuremberg, Germany
>
> We will be present on the booth of Evidence (Hall 4 / 4-545
> <https://www.embedded-world.de/en/ausstellerprodukte/embwld16/exhibitor-18047504/evidence-srl>_)_ and
> Emmtrix (Hall 4A, booth 520d
> <https://www.embedded-world.de/en/ausstellerprodukte/embwld16/exhibitor-19553455/emmtrix-technologies>_)_
>
> Scilab has many applications in the field of embedded systems :
> --> post-processing of test data
> --> automation of tasks
> -->prototyping of control algorithms
> -->identification of systems parameter
> -->simulation of control systems
> --> embedded code generation
>
> Here are some use cases of Scilab in this field, from our last
> ScilabTEC :
>
> <http://www.scilab.org/fr/community/scilabtec/2015/ZYNQ-7000-High-Performance-Electric-Drive-and-Silicon-Carbide-Multilevel-inverter-with-SCILAB-Hardware-in-the-loop>
>
> * ZYNQ-7000 High Performance Electric Drive and Silicon Carbide
> Multilevel inverter with Scilab Hardware-in-the-loop
> <http://www.scilab.org/fr/community/scilabtec/2015/ZYNQ-7000-High-Performance-Electric-Drive-and-Silicon-Carbide-Multilevel-inverter-with-SCILAB-Hardware-in-the-loop>
> * E4Coder on Scilab: State Machines simulation and GUI
> prototyping
> <http://www.scilab.org/fr/community/scilabtec/2015/E4Coder-on-Scilab-State-Machines-simulation-and-GUI-prototyping-for-Scilab-5.x>
> * Can programming of multi-core systems be easier, please?
> <http://www.scilab.org/fr/community/scilabtec/2015/Can-programming-of-multi-core-systems-be-easier-please-The-ALMA-Approach>
> * Real-time control and measurement applications
> <http://www.scilab.org/fr/community/scilabtec/2015/Utilizing-Scilab-and-Xcos-for-real-time-control-and-measurement-applications>
>
> Prior to this important event, we want to highlight some Scilab
> partners in the world of Embedded Systems which will be present at
> Embedded World:
>
> * Evidence
> <http://evidence.eu.com/>,<http://3o69.mj.am/link/3o69/l1yg/14/nhjVrhr02-h021TOwOMROQ/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5lbW10cml4LmNvbQ>
> * Emmtrix
> <http://www.emmtrix.com/>,<http://3o69.mj.am/link/3o69/l1yg/15/hj8JqLS_OR8HY87_Elb4cA/aHR0cDovL3d3dy54aWxpbnguY29tLw>
> * Xilinx <http://www.xilinx.com/>
> * LCM <http://mechatronic-simulation.org/>(present at
> Microchip's booth)
>
> Please do contact us, to set up a time for some quality exchange.
>
> Meet us @ Embedded World
> <mailto:contact at scilab-enterprises.com?subject=embeddedworld2016>
>
> --
> The Scilab Team
>
>
>
>
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Antoine Monmayrant LAAS - CNRS
7 avenue du Colonel Roche
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Tel:+33 5 61 33 64 59
email : antoine.monmayrant at laas.fr
permanent email : antoine.monmayrant at polytechnique.org
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