ScilabTEC 2012 / Vincent COUVERT – Bruno JOFRETJuin 28, 2012

Scilab 5.4.0 live

Roadmap

Planning

Announced for December 2011

Test releases:– 5.4.0 alpha-1 in December 2011

– 5.4.0 beta-1 in June 2012

Delay due to:– Lack of resources,

– Technical problems,

– Lot of new features for a single release,

– Beginning of Scilab Enterprises activity (time consuming but mandatory to ensure Scilab software perenity).

Scilab 5.4.0 final release is planned for this autumn!

Main development axes

Usability

Scilab 6 migration

Interoperability

Scientific features

Graphics & GUI

Xcos

Quality

Usability

Scilab Desktop

Session saved and restored at next startup

New working environment

Better integration of existing tools:

– History Browser

– File Browser

– Variable Browser

Predefined layouts:

– Simple (Scilab 5.3.3)

– Integrated (Scilab 5.4.0)

An Ergonomic Environment

File Browser

Console

Variable Browser

Command History

Scilab Preferences (1)

Unified preferences GUI for all Scilab components

Computation engine configuration:– ieee mode

– lines function

– Display format

Console colors & fonts

Scinotes:– Colors & fonts

– Saving preferences

– Coding style

Other inner configuration:– JVM memory size

Scilab Preferences (2)

Component selection Settings

Usability Improvements

Variable Browser – Variable Editor:

– Auto-refresh

– Multiple variable edition enabled

– Plotting capabilities

– Copy/Paste to/from your favorite spreadsheet editor

New CLI mode management:

– GNU/Linux and Mac OS X versions

– Wide char support

– Based on standard libraries

Graphics & GUI

Graphics

Based on SciRenderer (Java rendering library)

Better performances & stability

Better graphic card support (generations & vendors)

Interaction:

– 2-D zoom using mouse wheel

– New 3-D zoom capabilities

– Rotation using right-click

Graphic export capabilities:

– Off-screen export

– New bitmap formats (PNG, JPEG, BMP)

– New vectorial formats (PDF, SVG)

GUI & uicontrols

New uicontrol styles:– “image”

– “table”

Figures:– new “resizefcn” property

– uicontrols & axes size and position management

Console handle:– Better menus management in Scilab console

– consoleHandle = get(0);

Hidden handles management:– Console/Figures menus hidden by default

– “ShowHiddenHandles” property added

Interoperability

Javasci V2

New types managed:

– sparse and boolean sparse

– tlists, mlists and lists

– polynomial

Scilab as a graphic engine based on driver function and off-screen

capabilities

Scilab engine instance:

– Multiple calls to same environment

– No need to save/load your data between calls

Direct variable mapping, no need to push/pop

Variable introspection: type & dimensions

Scilab Open Data format (SOD)

HDF5 based format

Fully documented and tested

Used in Xcos since Scilab 5.2.0

Exchange format between Scilab 5.X and Scilab 6.X

Unmanaged types:

– Matlab sparse datatype

– Scilab macros

SOD format / save & load functions

New calling sequence for save function:

– save("filename.sod", "a", "b", "c")

– SOD format file

Obsolete calling sequences for save function:

– save("filename.sod", a, b, c)

– save(fid, a, b, c)

– Old binary format

Obsolete calling sequences for load function:

– load(fid, a, b, c)

– Old binary format

Scilab formats across versions

Scilab 4.X Scilab 5.X Scilab 6.X

Scilab binary formatsave(“filename”, a, b, c)

save(fid, a, b, c)load(fid, a, b, c)

Scilab SOD formatsave(“filename”, “a”, “b”, “c”)load(“filename”, “a”, “b”, “c”)

XML file management

Easy access to XML data with common formats (CML, …)

Edition:– xmlNs

– xmlElement

– xmlDocument

Reading:– xmlRead

– xmlXPath

Writing:– xmlWrite

Validation:– xmlValidate

Xcos

Coselica

External module

Modelica based extension

Multi-physics domain:

– Electronics

– Mechanics

– Thermo-dynamics

Editor & Simulator

Performances:

– Simulation startup

– Diagram loading/saving

– Code generation

New ZCOS format:

– Compressed data needed for big diagrams

Port & Block style management:

– Latex formulas as block labels

– Dynamic block display based on internal parameters

Scientific Features

Testing module – assert functions

Facilitate & encourage test writing

Available for external modules

Ensure test portability between Scilab 5.X and Scilab 6.X

Basis of Scilab daily compilation chains and test chains

Easy management of exceptional floating point numbers: Inf, Nan

Main functions:– assert_checktrue — Check that condition is true.

– assert_checkequal — Check that computed and expected are equal.

– assert_checkalmostequal — Check that computed and expected are numerically close.

– assert_checkerror — Check that an instruction produces the expected error.

New signal processing functions

Implementation of SEP #73: new convolution functions

– conv - discrete 1-D convolution

– conv2 - discrete 2-D convolution

– convol2d - discrete 2-D convolution, using fft

– phaseplot - frequency phase plot

– xcorr - auto and cross correlation of signals (superseeds corr)

– xcov - auto and cross covariance of signals (superseeds corr)

– arma2ss - arma data structure to a state space system conversion

New elementary functions

dec2base – decimal to base conversion

nthroot – real nth root of real numbers

eigs

– Not in 5.4.0-beta-1

– Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of (sparse & full) matrices

– Based on ARPACK-ng

– Simplify the use of dsaupd, ...

Quality

Daily Quality

Codereview:– Each modification is validated by an other developer

– Critical commits blocked before the release

Tests:– New feature = unitary test

– Bug fix = non-regression test

Each night:– Five versions generated

– Each generated version is tested (2200 automatic tests)

5.4.0-beta-1 version:– ~70 failing tests under Windows, GNU/Linux

– ~100 failing tests under Mac OS X

All tests will successfully pass in 5.4.0 final release.

Live Demonstration

Conclusion

Open-source libraries

SciRenderer:– Rendering library

– Based on JoGL2

– Basis of Scilab graphics

– Collaviz project

– Free and open-source

ARPACK-ng:– ARPACK fork

– Joint project between:

• Octave

• Scilab

• Debian

– Used/packaged in:

• GNU/Linux distributions

• MacPorts, Fink

Developped and maintained by Scilab Enterprises

On the road to Scilab 5.4.0

Missing features:– Using Unified Preferences

for Xcos, ...

– Graphic features improvement

– New properties

– Bug fixes

Planning:– Summer 2012

• Missing features development

• Bug fixes

• New BETA versions

– Autumn 2012

• Scilab 5.4.0 final release

Two new developers in the team in the next weeks.

On the road to Scilab 6.0.0

Scilab 5.4.0:– Latest 5.X version

– Basis for Scilab 6.X graphics capabilities

– Minor versions released until Scilab 6.0.0 release

Deprecated functions

New prototypes

Scilab 6.0 Alpha release: – Without Xcos

– Q4 2012

Progressive switch of developers from 5.X to 6.X family.