Re: [Swarm-Modelling] model problem

[Alex Lancaster]

>>>>> "JL" == John Lee  writes:

JL> Does the code in the FTP mean I could reuse it?  

Generally, yes.  You need to look in the package for a file that
specifies the license (often COPYING or LICENSE).  All SDG apps (ones
in the apps/sdg subdirectory) are licensed under the GNU General
Public License (GPL), see:

 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

which means you can reuse it, only you need to release your
modifications to the code if you decide to distribute the program.

Other contributed apps may be under a different license, but since
they link with Swarm which is GPL, they are (or should) be distributed
under a GPL-compatible license, such as a BSD or MIT license, see:

 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html

and:

 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#WhatDoesCompatMean

JL> And, if I know most of my requirements, is it possible to find one
JL> model that I could use it and needn't to do many work?

Maybe, but you need to download them and start trying them out!  (Note
that some of the contributed code could be quite old and is not
guaranteed to work, while the SDG swarmapps should work).  Either way,
it's unlikely that you'll find something that exactly fits your model,
and you will need to roll up your sleeves and do some programming.
This is true of almost all agent-based modelling toolkits at some
level.  Agent-based models aren't one-size-fits-all (and if it claims
to be, you should be generally suspicious of it), but will requiring
tailoring to your needs.  In the process you will understand your
model and your modelling problem infinitely better since you will
understand exactly how the components are constructed and interact
with each other.

Alex