[5][6][7][8] Scilab puts less emphasis on syntactic compatibility with MATLAB than Octave does,[5][9][10] but it is similar enough that some authors suggest that it is easy to transfer skills between the two systems.

By using matrix-based computation, dynamic typing, and automatic memory management, many numerical problems may be expressed in a reduced number of code lines, as compared to similar solutions using traditional languages, such as Fortran, C, or C++.

Due to the open source nature of the software, some user contributions have been integrated into the main program.

Scilab was created in 1990 by researchers from INRIA and École nationale des ponts et chaussées (ENPC).

[14] In July 2008, in order to improve the technology transfer, the Scilab Consortium joined the Digiteo Foundation.

In February 2017 Scilab 6.0.0 was released which leveraged the latest C++ standards and lifted memory allocation limitations.

This new deployment method has the notable advantages of masking code & data as well as providing large computational power.