Scilab is a free open source software for scientific modeling and simulation. It is a cross-platform software running on Windows, Linux, and macOS. It resembles many aspects of MATLAB with many built-in functions and tools to facilitate the modeling of natural and human systems.
- The good
- Free and open-source.
- Integrated graphical editor (Xcos).
- The user can create functions and scripts similar to MATLAB.
- An active community of users from different disciplines.
- Many built-in functions and numerical methods.
- The bad
- There is a lack of tutorials, learning resources and documentation compared to other open-source projects.
Scilab has an integrated graphical editor similar to MATLAB Simulink called Xcos. This feature is missing from many other projects such as GNU Octave.
Scilab comes loaded with functions and tools to make modeling any system as easy as it can get, this is the same philosophy of MATLAB. You will have powerful matrix manipulation functions plus a lot of numerical methods already implemented, in addition to advanced 2D and 3D plotting capabilities.
Maple's algebraic computation system (CAS) can be linked to extend Scilab's functionality to the area of symbolic mathematics, but because Maple is not free software, the other option is to interface to Maxima via a project called SciMax, but it remains limited to Linux machines at the time of writing this review. Another great tool that can be interfaced with Scilab is the Tcl/Tk scripting language.
Scilab features
- Free and open-source software.
- Uses an interpreted language for ease of computation.
- An excellent alternative to MATLAB.
- An integrated graphical modeling editor similar to MATLAB Simulink called Xcos.
- A large community of users from different disciplines.
- It contains many built-in functions and numerical methods.
- It can be used to execute MATLAB codes using the m2sci_gui tool.
Download Scilab
To get the latest version of Scilab 6.0.2 with a direct and fast download link via Downzen click on the download button on this page or visit the download page on the official website.
Additional information
- Version6.0.2
- Last update2019-10-28
- Downloads3.9K
- LicenseFree
- Size180.9MB
- RequiresWindows Vista+