Okay, I just need to vent.\u00a0 I’ve spent hours analyzing papers, trying to figure out how the Texas DOT pavement method works.\u00a0 Specifically how the software works that they use for pavement design.\u00a0 I have the dissertation that the software was based on, and included in the dissertation is the code to the program in Fortran.\u00a0 Me not knowing Fortran is beside the point, I’ll be learning it here very soon.\u00a0 If you are going to put your source code at the back of your dissertation, release it open source, and put it somewhere, like sourceforge.com.<\/p>\n
I am not going to regurgitate the Fortran, the parts I use from these old programs will be re-programmed in a language I am more fluent in.\u00a0 It would be nice, however to have the code already up somewhere so I could get to it, other than having to read it line by line from a 10 year old dissertation.<\/p>\n
On the subject of open source… I don’t understand how government entities and public university faculty can release proprietary\u00a0 software.\u00a0 They are funded by the public, therefore their work is owned by the public.\u00a0 Shouldn’t it be open source?\u00a0 Oh what a wonderful world it would be if I could just get the source code I need, instead of spending hours and hours just reading through documentation and papers to figure out how to write one tiny routine or function; especially when no information is provided about how to obtain certain variables, and I can’t ‘look under the hood’ and see how they did it.\u00a0 Maybe they don’t know how to do it either, and that is why they are hiding it.<\/p>\n
I think open source is the perfect way to program transparently.\u00a0 I prefer using open source because:<\/p>\n