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  • Author Author: mouch
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Licensing, grrr

mouch

I would so love to stand on the shoulders of giants but the current systems in the world do not make it easy.

 

At the moment, I am progressing nicely with my simulations using; Matlab, Simulink and SimPowerSystems toolbox. Anyone who has worked with Mathworks products before knows that individual components require a license. Matlab on its own is great, Simulink as well. Then there are the various toolboxes that allow you to speed up work. At the time I got my licenses, I was given a budget and as such had to make a choice. I also was under pressure to spend it before a specific date - end of year finance. I believe there are more people that know this phenomenon.

 

As such I had to filter out toolboxes I would not need and try and fit in the ones that I would need. At the time, I was interested in the SimPowerSystems toolbox, which I started using, but I was not aware of the Simulink Coder toolbox. I had probably seen it but it didnot seem necessary at the time.

 

Recently, I had a discussion with our local grid computing people (super computers for batch processing) and they told me that Matlab can create standalone executables which would allow me to use all 40 nodes of the supercomputer for batch processing of my models. Much like discussed here: http://www.mathworks.co.uk/products/demos/simscape/param_projector/index.html

 

But, for this - you guessed it - I need a license for the Simulink Coder toolbox and I need to know if it works with other toolboxes that use Simulink (from the demo in the link it appears so, but I am not taking anything for granted).

 

So, I know have to apply for funding within the department (sigh) and explain why I did not order it in the first place (sigh), then the money needs to be cleared (sigh), then the order needs to go through our system (sigh). So, expect an update on this progress somewhere in the future, but don't hold your breath.

 

Did not know that standing on the shoulders of giants would take so long. image

 

My2p

  • in reply to DAB

    Sometimes you have to hit the giants in the back of the knees to get them to stoop down, to make it easier to climb on their shoulders.

    I like it. lol

     

    Its not I am against licensing but it is frustrating and maybe Mathworks can find another model of licensing for small time users that only incidentally uses certain toolboxes. As far as I know I am the only one within my University that wants that toolbox for a couple of months and afterwards we probably do not need it anymore, unless other people take over etc... but for now I am on my lonesome.

     

    I like matlab a lot as a tool, I like the toolboxes it can provide and with the new SimPowerSystems toolbox the ease of which to integrate electronic components into simulink and investigate high level control strategies is fantastic.

     

    But I wouldnt mind a setup like microchip have, where they provide the program for free and they make the money on hardware. I know its not a fair comparison but it would help to open up the lot and make it easier to stand on the shoulders of giants.

     

    On McAffee, yes I knew and I have never used it for those reasons, Similar to Norton. I switched to AVG which is free for personal use.

     

    I found the open CV stuff, which looks like fun but less graphical compared to simulink (ie. less drag and drop - yep I am lazy and do not work with graphics that much). Was the Open CV the replacment program for Matlab you mentioned?

    Have you got a link for those Robotsee and processing?

     

    My2p

  • Sometimes you have to hit the giants in the back of the knees to get them to stoop down, to make it easier to climb on their shoulders.

     

    I clearly understand you frustrations.  I recently made the mistake of downloading a Free version of Macaffee software.  Big mistake, you cannot delete the files from your computer.  Ever.  You have to send a message to the website and then let them have access to your computer to unlock the files and erase them for you.  I WILL NEVER USE MACAFFEE AGAIN!  EVER!

     

    Back to your problem, I know there is an open source program similar to Matlab and I found it worked quite well.  It may not have all of the neat features, but its free and you can add in C programs to do user specific projects.

    I ran into a similar problem on Mathcad, needless to say I returned it for a refund and no longer deal with that company.

     

    I fully understand the issues involved with protecting your products, but when you treat every customer like a criminal, they tend to not like your product as much. 

     

    With Open CV, RobotSee, and Processing, I think you can do just about everything you need with much less hassle.  I am support more of the open source organizations for both hardware and software.  I will risk bugs, but I am tired of wasting my money for rediculous lisencing issues.

     

    Just my Opinion,

     

    DAB