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by Pamar 1537 days ago
... hesitantly raises his hand

Back in ... 1991? I did use the C version of the Simplex Method almost straight from the book. I needed a concise linear programming optimization module that would be called in the middle of a not-really-concise production programming system handling (automotive) engines and gearboxes production for a couple of FIAT plants.

Basically a short-period scheduler to decide what to produce (slave to an immense system running on IBM mainframes; COBOL, again).

So I quickly put together the C version (with minimal modifications) and it chugged along happily on a VAX for at least a decade.
1 comments
eesmith 1537 days ago
Thanks for the counter-example. :)

Did your company also license the code?

To explain my frame of mine, I was thinking how it was used in 2007 or later.

In the early 1990s, there wouldn't have been much off-the-shelf/free&open-source options. The GNU Scientific Library didn't start until 1996, for example (according to Wikipedia).

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Pamar 1537 days ago
No. I was aware of the issue at the time, and this is part of the reason for me to alter the source a bit.

In my defense, the people I was working for at the time did not even understood the topic when I talked about that.

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eesmith 1537 days ago
I think also that 30+ years ago software copyright was farther in the background.

The "Don't Copy that Floppy" propaganda, for example, didn't start until 1992.

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