Re: [Swarm-Support] development priorities (was Re: Membership inSwarm Developmen Group)

[Marcus G. Daniels]

glen e. p. ropella wrote:
> So first you said it is simple.  Now you say it's not simple?  Sheesh.
>   
It's a simple matter to use the R embedding techniques once you take 
some time to learn them.   A fair amount of details, but a good manual 
and knowledgeable people on the mailing list that can answer questions. 
 The kind of person I'm talking about here is someone that has written 
some C or Fortran library code and is in the position of either not 
wanting to rewrite that in R (feasibility), or it not being appropriate 
to write in R itself (due to scaling or compute speed).  

When I say simple, I mean simple in this context.   A worthwhile 
endeavor for someone wanting to share an a library with a larger set of 
users that may or may not have the skills or inclination to do the task 
themselves.

Further the endeavor that the R developers engaged in when they made 
this system is a completely separate, and a larger, one from the package 
contributor developers, or for that matter the users of either R or the 
said contributed packages.

Anyway, as far as embedding Swarm goes, the current code is about 80% of 
where it would need to be to server this package contributor audience.   
In all likelihood, it wouldn't be so much of a package contributor 
audience, as with R, but more of a population of ABM simulation 
integrators.  People integrating simulations for models involving 
multiple software packages (Swarm being just one component).

I do not that I think elaborating this stuff is an important thing to do 
relative to other possible SDG - funded efforts.   I'm saying that if 
someone wants to explore embedding the existing Swarm library, the 
infrastructure is reasonably adaptable and complete. 

Speaking only for myself, in the best possible world, I think would be 
great to see the SDG fund an array of things ranging from ABM research 
programs to
prototype software development to software maintenance.   Software 
maintenance is one core competency, though.