The Pheromone Volume III Issue 4

[Irene Anne Lee]

                     The Swarm SFI-Hive Pheromone
                          Volume 3, Issue 4
                          December 16, 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. Happy Holidays to the Swarm
  II. T'is the Season...
 III. Swarm release 1.0.4
  IV. Java GUI Progress Report
   V. The Annual Swarm Survey
  VI. Swarmfest/GIS '98 update
 VII. New bug-swarm mailing list

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

   I. Happy Holidays to the Swarm.  

We wish all of the Swarm Community a safe and happy holiday season.
"May you find numerous honey pots under your tree" (attributed to Alex)
"Bah humbug!" (attributed to Marcus)

  II. T'is the season... for tax-deductible giving!
      (fa la la la, la la la la la)

Our mission at "Hive Central" is to contribute to the Swarm community by 
maintaining and upgrading the kernel and library code, by supporting
researchers and developers using Swarm, and by fostering the ongoing
development and use of Swarm software. In addition to contributing to
the Swarm community, we are also dependent on the user community for support.

Now is the time when many organizations and individuals consider
making tax deductible contributions to their favorite charities and 
not-for-profit organizations. This holiday season, please consider
making a donation to the Swarm Program at the Santa Fe Institute.
  
Your contribution is vital to keeping the program in existence.  
While offering us many benefits, the Santa Fe Institute will no longer 
fund the development of Swarm.  We must become self-sufficient within a
year or cease to exist. 

If you or others within your organization are able to make a year-end
tax deductible contribution to the Swarm Program at SFI, please
contact Irene Lee, address@hidden, for further information.

Thank you for your ongoing support,
        The Swarm Team at the Santa Fe Institute.

 III. Swarm version 1.0.4

Swarm version 1.0.4 has left the larval stage and is now available to download
from our website: http://www.santafe.edu/projects/swarm/release.html
The documentation is still on its way so please read the notes on Changes and
the "Compatibility for 1.0.4" page for details.

Various changes and fixes have been incorporated:
  changes to InFile, 
  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

The following errant behavior has been reported:
  The default compiler goes to cc if the user doesn't set up a
  configuration so be sure to specify gcc as your compiler.

  IV. Java GUI progress report

Doug Orr is making progress on the port to the Windows NT platform. 
Currently heatbugs and the stock market simulation are fully
functional. The next objective is to get the bank simulation up and
running using the graph library.

We will soon be needing volunteers to test the alpha build.  If you
are interested please send email to address@hidden

   V. The Annual Swarm Survey 

The annual Swarm Survey will reach your e-mailbox before year's end.
The information you provide will help us get a better understanding
of your needs so that appropriate decisions can be made about
long-range goals and the future of Swarm.  The survey will be
conducted by Scott Christley of NET-Community and the information you
provide will be kept strictly confidential.

To encourage your timely response, we will randomly select 10 people
from the pool of respondents to receive free Swarm t-shirts. (Drawing
date to be announced.)  Bee the first one in your local swarm to own one!
 
   VI. Swarmfest/GIS '98 update

Preliminary feedback shows that almost all of the respondents who wish
to attend Swarmfest/GIS '98 are available on March 20-24th.  Thus it
is unlikely that the conference dates will change.

  VII. New bug-swarm mailing list

We have created a new mailing list called "bug-swarm".  We established
the list is to ensure careful tracking of bug reports and to create
a forum for detailed technical discussion and analysis.

When reporting a bug to bug-swarm please include a test case.


                              =========

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