The Pheromone VolumeIII Issue 3

[Irene Anne Lee]

                     The Swarm SFI-Hive Pheromone
                          Volume 3, Issue 3
                          December 2, 1997


   The Pheromone will stand to inform users of the activities and
goals of the hive and user community.  Contributions are accepted that
announce Swarm-related events or activities in any of the growing
Swarm colonies around the world.  To contribute, send e-mail to
address@hidden  The Pheromone is mailed out on Tuesday (or....
maybe Wednesday) if and only if there is information to be
disseminated.

Table of Contents
-----------------

   I. Incorporation update
  II. User Community Page updates
      A. Website for Arborgames
      B. link to an IW effort at DISA
 III. New Stuff from the Users
      A. Web page on Individual-based models
  IV. Java GUI Progress Report 
   V. Charging Toward 1.0.4 
  VI. Call for Participation in SwarmFest '98

========================================================================

   I. Incorporation update

Progress has been made on drawing up the incorporation documents for
the Swarm Development Group.  The Swarm Development Group is being
incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the
coordination and support of Swarm software development across multiple
distributed sites.  The next step is to file the application
and hold the initial meeting of the board of directors to adopt the
bylaws and elect the officers of the corporation.

  II. User Community Page updates

      A. Arborgames website
 
Melissa Savage (UCLA), Bob Bell (UCLA), and Bruce Sawhill (Bios) have built 
a model of forest dynamics whose goal is to examine the role of fire on species
diversity. A link to the source code for Arborgames, as the app is
called, was added to the User Community page.

      B. IW effort at DISA

Dr. John Dockery and associates at Defense Information Systems Agency 
(Headquarters, Arlington VA) are building a model for Information
Warfare Simulation based on SWARM. A link to their web page is available
from the User Community page. 

 III. New Stuff from the Users

      A. Web page on individual-based models

Members of the Swarm community may be interested in a new web page
I've put together, an annotated list of links on individual-based
models.  The page contains a wide variety of models from many fields,
with a bit of a bias towards models using spatially explicit mobile
agents in continuous space.  Several of the referenced models are
built on Swarm.  Please visit the page, and forward any comments or
suggestions to me (address@hidden): 
      http://hmt.com/cwr/ibm.html
      --Craig Reynolds

  IV. Java GUI Progress Report

      Doug is finishing up the alpha which will have heatbugs in all
its glory working with Java.  After that, he is hoping to have the
remaining applications working for a beta in December.


   V. Charging Toward 1.0.4

      Release 1.0.4 is expected on December 8th.  In addition to
the Java GUI, various changes and fixes will be incorporated:

        Ken's additions to InFile and XColorMap, 
        Manor's mods to NodeItem.m,
        Sven's AppendFile and reverse QSort.
        Dwight's safe probes
        Probe and control panel positioning
        Print format in probes 
        Changes to seeds in random.m
        Raster int in Tkobj.c
        Raster unset color in Tkobj.c


  IV. SwarmFest '98 Call for Participation

      SwarmFest '98 is going to be a gathering of Swarm Users to meet
and discuss all technical aspects of using Swarm, share ideas, etc. 
This year we would like to hold a two day GIS gathering immediately
following SwarmFest '98.  The GIS gathering is for those interested in
Geographic Information Systems.

At this point in the planning of Swarmfest '98, we would like to know the
following: (email address@hidden with SwarmFest '98 in the subject
field)

 Are you interested in coming to Santa Fe for SwarmFest '98?
 Are you available March 20-24 1998?
 Would you like to attend the 2 days of Swarm sessions?
 Would you like to attend the 2 days of GIS meeting?
 Would you like to attend Swarm tutorial sessions?

                              =========

The Swarm Pheromone is created by the members of the Swarm project at
the Santa Fe Institute.  For more information on the Swarm Project,
see http://www.santafe.edu/projects/swarm.  Comments, corrections, and
contributions should be sent to address@hidden