Users of Numerical Recipes software, and those given permission for the use of Recipes within software that they distribute, are bound by the following disclaimer of warranty, which is an integral part of all of our books and software packages:

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

THIS SOFTWARE IS FURNISHED "AS IS". NUMERICAL RECIPES MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, THAT THE SOFTWARE IS FREE OF ERROR, OR IS CONSISTENT WITH ANY PARTICULAR STANDARD OF MERCHANTABILITY, OR THAT IT WILL MEET LICENSEE'S REQUIREMENTS FOR ANY PARTICULAR APPLICATION. NUMERICAL RECIPES ACCEPTS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY MATHEMATICAL OR TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS OF THE PROCEDURES AND FUNCTIONS WHICH MAKE UP THE SOFTWARE. WITHOUT ADDITIONAL THOROUGH TESTING BY LICENSEE, THE SOFTWARE SHOULD NOT BE RELIED ON FOR SOLVING A PROBLEM WHOSE INCORRECT SOLUTION COULD RESULT IN INJURY TO A PERSON OR LOSS OF PROPERTY. NEITHER NUMERICAL RECIPES, NOR THE AUTHORS OF THE BOOK "NUMERICAL RECIPES: THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING", NOR THE PUBLISHER OF THAT BOOK SHALL IN ANY EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR GENERAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL, ARISING FROM USE OF THE SOFTWARE. USE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ENTIRELY AT LICENSEE'S OWN RISK.

So what, exactly, are you guys afraid of that you need all this legal stuff? And why is it in UNREADABLE ALL CAPS??

Mathwiz, I can answer that.

This gets right to the heart of the core fact that NR is primarily a textbook and educational resource, and only incidentally and secondarily a software library. We've always put our efforts into (hopefully) good writing, clear working code, and good pedagogy, and NOT into the level of maintenance required of a fully supported, industrial grade, program library.

So, what we DON'T want and DON'T encourage is for someone to go out and design (say) an artificial heart, or an airplane, or even a production-grade financial instruments price model, that relies on any particular specification or standard for NR.

Now don't get me wrong: I personally, along with thousands and thousands of other readers, use NR all the time in a variety of developmental and research applications. By now, in the versions that have been out for a while, bugs turn up only very rarely. We think that NR, in this context, is pretty dependable -- and very convenient. BUT, as the disclaimer of warranty says, don't bet your (or anyone else's) life or property on it!

As for why it is in ALL CAPS, this is because we once paid for a fancy lawyer who told us that disclaimers of warranty have to be in ALL CAPS or in boldface to be valid. Is this true? Don't ask us -- but for what we paid for the advice, we felt we'd better follow it!

What does it mean? We cannot get warranty.

That is correct. There is no warranty on any Numerical Recipes code or product. As a matter of good business practice, we of course try to help the customer if there is a problem, but there is no warranty.