>I would love to release my data in an open format. But the software I'm using is proprietary - and the format is therefore closed. > >Here's the problem: Scien

>I would love to release my data in an open format. But the software I'm using is proprietary - and the format is therefore closed. > >Here's the problem: Scientific software sucks. It's stuck 20 years ago. Usually a pain in the ass. Barely works. Crashes. Proprietary. Hacked together. And worst of all - ridiculously expensive. And if it's not proprietary, then it was written by me. The script is just good enough to do exactly what I need it to. I've hardcoded file directories and tab-delimiters. Release the data and code anyways. I feel your pain with the proprietary formats, but ImageJ is pretty good about dealing with bizarre formats (and other scientists are more likely to have access to the $10k software, or at least know someone who does). I feel your pain with the hacked together scripts. After sharing an analysis program with some collaborators, I had to go through about three rounds of testing to figure out all* of the unreliable assumptions I had made based on one particularly well-formed dataset. This process will make your code better, though, and it will make you a better coder. It will also help other people who are, like you and me, muddling through, trying to find any kind of usable starting point. [*] Okay, "some"