<< Cosmo

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Cosmo software licensing

The aim of this section is to list and clarify licenses of widely used cosmology packages, mainly focussing on ones that are free-licensed or OSI-open-source-definition-licensed.

name	URL	licence	free-licensed	GNU freedoms
				0	1	2	3
				use	modify	redistribute	redist modif.
RAMSES		Cecill	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
mpgrafic2		GPL	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Gadget2		GPL	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
GDL		GPL	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
CLASS			N	Y	N	N	N
CosmicFish	ArXiv:1606.06268

Cosmo software advice

• Science software development advice: ArXiv:1210.0530
• general strategies
  • Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_repeat_yourself
  • unit and integration tests: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development
  • object-oriented software (python, C++): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLID

Software that could endanger people

Cosmology research software is unlikely to be used in systems that could endanger people. Therac-25 is a classical case of software-controlled medical equipment that killed people in the 1980s in Canada, and the British Post Office scandal a case in the 2000s and 2010s in which (apparently hundreds of) postal workers were imprisoned in the UK based on software that falsely claimed they had stolen money:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal

Initial draft only!!! incomplete and unchecked... Please update! -- BoudRoukema - 21 Jun 2016