The case for open computer programs

0 views

Skip to first unread message

S. Kritikos

unread,

Mar 6, 2012, 5:50:49 PM3/6/12

to Public Software Mailing List, sc...@googlegroups.com

Folks, an interesting article:

The case for open computer programs
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v482/n7386/full/nature10836.html

By Darrel C. Ince, Leslie Hatton & John Graham-Cumming

"Scientific communication relies on evidence that cannot be entirely
included in publications, but the rise of computational science has
added a new layer of inaccessibility. Although it is now accepted that
data should be made available on request, the current regulations
regarding the availability of software are inconsistent. We argue
that, with some exceptions, anything less than the release of source
programs is intolerable for results that depend on computation. The
vagaries of hardware, software and natural language will always ensure
that exact reproducibility remains uncertain, but withholding code
increases the chances that efforts to reproduce results will fail."

I have argued in other contexts that open sourcing computer modeling
software for climate research is long overdue