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Compatibility grid of old Scilab versions

or ''getting the most on a vintage platform''

Using the latest released version of Scilab is not always possible or desirable. There are many cases in which installation is required on a vintage computer or OS, for a host of practical reasons -- dedicated hardware installed into a specific, nonreplaceable box, for instance.

The aim of these notes is to detail the reqirements of various Scilab versions in terms of OS, installed packages, memory footprint and so on, together with minimal information about the appearance of a new feature or the obsolescence of an abandoned one.

There is an official System Requirements for Scilab page on site, which mentions the supported OS of some of the latest version, but lacks other details such as minimal system requirements.

A detailed list of features introduced and changes can be usually found in the release notes files (for instance trunk version, BUILD_4) and in the \$SCI/CHANGES file.

These files, however, do not always tell the whole story. A new feature, for example, may be listed when first introduced in just a seminal and buggy implementation, versions ahead of being really usable (notable examples: integer types, new graphical mode); for some other version compilation may be possible on a particular platform, though not officially supported.

Some old packages are currently available on the Scilab site download page, down to version 2.6. Another site to look up is the INRIA frp server, and rpmfind too retrieves a few packages. For places where version 2.5 used to be still available, see this newsgroup thread. For older versions don't despair but use a search engine, there is no limit to the junk which is kept online nowadays.

Some MacOS (usually cvs snapshots at arbitrary dates, rather than official releases) binaries are available on JPC Scilab site and on Stephane Mottelet site. TODO: insert what relevant in the tables below.

Some of the historical version info is taken from SCIBOT. Partially, the point at that ancient time was to track the development status between phantom unofficial versions; now this is not anymore relevant, given the open access to the codebase and bugzilla.

Please help adding data!


Scilab 4.1 released 12/12/2006

officially supported on

Linux

Windows (2000/XP/Vista)

distributed binary runs also on

Win98SE

unofficial binaries available for

MacOSX

compiles also on

Solaris (10)

disk space

RAM

works with 128Mb

notes

* last version supporting old graphics mode


Scilab 4.0 released 15/2/2006

officially supported on

Linux

Windows 9X/2000/XP

HP-UX

distributed binary runs also on

unofficial binaries available for

MacOSX

compiles also on

Solaris (10)

disk space

RAM

notes

* last version supporting the gtk2 widget (configure --with-gtk2)

Scilab 4.0RC1 released 21/12/2005

* last version for which a Solaris binary is officially available
announcement


Scilab 3.1.1 released 31/5/2005

officially supported on

Linux

Windows 9X/2000/XP

Solaris

HP-UX

distributed binary runs also on

unofficial binaries available for

MacOSX

compiles also on

disk space

RAM

notes

* released "due to a problem in demostration menues"
announcement

Scilab 3.1 released 27/5/2005

announcement

Scilab 3.1RC released 5/4/2005

announcement


Scilab 3.0 released 9/7/2004

officially supported on

Linux

Windows 9X/NT/2000/XP

Solaris

HP-UX

distributed binary runs also on

unofficial binaries available for

compiles also on

disk space

77.6Mb with xml sources

RAM

notes

* requires Tcl/Tk 8.4
*announcement

Scilab 3.0RC released 18/5/2004

announcement


Scilab 2.7.2

officially supported on

windows, available here ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Scilab/distributions-2.7/scilab272.exe with sources

disk space

52.7Mb with xml sources

Scilab 2.7.1

i586 rpm


Scilab 2.7 released 20/2/2003

officially supported on

Linux

Windows 9X/NT/2000/XP

Solaris

Dec Alpha

distributed binary runs also on

unofficial binaries available for

compiles also on

disk space

62Mb

RAM

VSZ ~14Mb+8b*stacksize

notes

* last version to require Tcl/Tk 8.3 only; runs e.g. on RedHat 7.3
* first version including a minimal scipad
announcement


Scilab 2.6 released 26/3/2001

officially supported on

Linux

Windows 9X/NT/2000/XP

Solaris

Dec Alpha

HP-UX

SGI

distributed binary runs also on

unofficial binaries available for

MacOSX package

compiles also on

disk space

61Mb

RAM

notes

Scilab-2.6 (alpha version) official unstable release


Scilab-2.5.1 (second beta version)

unofficial branch from the INRIA sources as of 2001-1-10 modifications to up to and including 2001-1-18, courtesy of Stéphane Mottelet

Scilab-2.5.1 (first beta version) unofficial release from the Saphir site; intended for an INRIA course; first spotted 2001-1-22.

Scilab-2.5.1 (alpha version) official unstable release as of 2000-7-21


Scilab 2.5 stable version, released 12/1999

officially supported on

distributed binary runs also on

unofficial binaries available for

LinuxPPC package

compiles also on

disk space

RAM

notes


Scilab-2.4.1 (official release) stable version


Scilab 2.4 released 17-20/7/1998

officially supported on

Linux

Win95/NT

notes

announcement
bugfix


Scilab 2.3.1 released 5/12/1997

Win95 beta announcement

Scilab 2.3 released 15/5/1997

officially supported on

Dec Alpha (OSF1 3.0)

Sun Sparc station (Sun OS 4.1.3, Sun Solaris 5.3, 5.5)

HP9000 (HP-UX 10.20)

SGI Mips Irix 5.3

HP-UX

IBM-RS6000 (AIX 3.2.5)

Linux

notes

announcement


Scilab 2.1 released 22/2/1995 (?)

officially supported on

MacOs System 7.x.x, 68020, 68030+68882fpu, PPC

RAM

at least 5.5 Mb for 68K and 6.2 Mb for PowerPC; best with application memory > 8Mb

disk space

7Mb

notes:

available here ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Scilab/contrib/Mac
version a2 23/5/1996, version a1 11/5/1996


Scilab 2.0 released 31/10/1994

"tested on"

Sun (SunOS 4.1.3)

HP-UX 9.01

DEC mips

DEC alpha (OSF/1 1.3)

IBM RS600

PC (linux) (x486)

notes

* announcement
* apparently the first version supporting 24 character case-sensitive variable names
* get it e.g. here
Scilab 2.0 On line doc Library reference manual


2022-09-08 09:27