About
IGL was designed and implemented by Colin Ferrari, a geochemist working on isotopic traceability. It came out of a practical problem: isotopic models are written once, in a spreadsheet or a script, and cannot be read by anyone else, re-run five years later, or compared with the model in a paper. A model that cannot be re-read is a result nobody can check.
Contact: colin.ferrari@igl-lang.org
Source code: https://github.com/ColinFerrari/igl
What IGL is not
It is not a solver, and it does not choose fractionation factors for you. The reference engine integrates what a model states; where a model states nothing, a database may answer, and where a database answers two ways the run stops rather than choosing. The literature decides which factor applies, and no format can decide it instead.
It is not owned by anyone. The specification is published under CC-BY-4.0 so that a second implementation can be written against a document rather than against this one's source code.
Licensing
| What | Licence |
|---|---|
| The specification and the companion formats | CC-BY-4.0 |
| The reference implementation and the conformance suite | MIT |
| The fractionation databases | CC-BY-4.0, each entry citing its own source |
On signed binaries
Released binaries are signed with a certificate issued to IsoFind. The signature identifies who built and distributed that binary. It does not make anyone the owner of the language, and a binary you compile yourself from the sources will not carry it and is no less valid for that.
Citing IGL
When a model or a result depends on the language, cite the version it was written against:
Ferrari, C. Isotope Geochemistry Language (IGL), version 0.5. https://github.com/ColinFerrari/igl
A fractionation factor taken from a database should be cited from its own source, which every entry carries. The database is a convenience for finding the value; the paper is what justifies it.