Fwd: NetLogo 2.0 Release Announcement

[Owen Densmore]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Uri Wilensky <[hidden email]>
> Date: December 10, 2003 9:54:03 PM MST
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: NetLogo 2.0 Release Announcement
> Reply-To: [hidden email]
>
> The NetLogo development team at the Center for Connected Learning and
> Computer-Based Modeling at Northwestern University is pleased to
> announce the release of NetLogo 2.0.  NetLogo 2.0 is available for
> free download from our site at http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/ .
>
> We hope you enjoy it. If you have comments or suggestions please send
> them to us at [hidden email]. Special thanks to
> everyone who helped us with the beta releases leading up to 2.0.
>
> Note that NetLogo 2.0 will not run on Windows 95, MacOS 8, or MacOS 9.
> However, we will continue to support NetLogo 1.3 (currently 1.3.1),
> which works on those systems.
>
> The following is a (partial) list of changes made and new features
> that have been added since NetLogo 1.3.1.
>
> * system:
>      + NetLogo now requires Java 1.4.1 or higher; on non-Macintosh
>        systems, 1.4.2 is preferred
>      + NetLogo now fully supports Mac OS X (not beta anymore)
>      + Mac OS X 10.2 users are strongly encouraged to get Java 1.4.1
>        Update 1 through Software Update
>      + our user interface now uses Java's Swing toolkit (and not the
>        older AWT toolkit)
>      + increased overall reliability
>      + NetLogo now functions more smoothly in many respects on Linux
>        (and probably other Unix systems)
>      + our recommended Java VM on Windows is now Sun 1.4.2 (instead
>        of IBM 1.1.8); we offer an installer that includes this VM
> * content:
>      + new biology models: Fur, Sunflower
>      + new physics model: Turbulence
>      + new chemistry model: B-Z Reaction
>      + new computer science models: CA Continuous, CA Stochastic
>      + new social science model: Gridlock (non-HubNet version)
>      + new ProbLab model: Random Basic
>      + new code examples One Turtle Per Patch Example, Look Ahead
>        Example, Grouping Turtles Example, User Interaction Example,
>        Neighborhoods Example, Partners Example, Random Seed Example,
>      + improved models: Plant Growth (bugfix), Fireflies (interface
>        changes), Decay (made flashing optional), Fire (new
>        turtle-based version is much faster), Percolation (much
>        faster), Ants (bugfix), Rugby (bugfix, improved code),
> Segregation
>        (bugfix, improved code)
>      + models improved, and promoted out of "unverified": Sand
> (bugfix),
>        Wandering Letters (overhauled), Lattice Gas Automaton, Dining
>        Philosophers, Turing Machine 2D, Division, CA Continuous, CA
>        Stochastic, Vector Fields, Random Basic, Prob Graphs Basic,
>        Stochastic Patchwork
>      + new sections in Programming Guide on "Random Numbers",
>        "Buttons", and "Math"
>      + restored missing punctuation marks in PDF version of User
>        Manual
> * features:
>      + the "Exact Turtle Positions" and "Turtle Sizes" settings have
>        been merged into a single option, and they are now much
>        faster, more reliable, and flicker-free; so much so, in fact,
>        that they are now on by default; turtle and patch labels are
>        much faster now too
>      + a full of suite of primitives for reading and writing
>        external files is now included; see the File I/O section of
>        the Programming Guide in the User Manual for details
>      + "strict math" mode is now always on, so model results are
>        reproducible cross-platform
>      + new "Export Graphics" and "Export Interface" menu items and
>        export-graphics and export-interface primitives let you save
>        the contents of the graphics window, or the whole interface
>        tab, to disk as a bitmap (in PNG format), also enabling the
> creation
>        of movies of model runs.
>      + the old BehaviorSpace tool has been scrapped; a replacement
>        version, still under development, is included; it does not
>        yet have all the functionality of the old tool, but is
>        already useful, and already has the following advantages over
>        the old version:
> - you can vary any global variables, not just sliders, but
>   also switches and choices, and any variable declared in
>   the procedures tab, and the values they range over can
>   be any values, not just numbers anymore
> - you can enter arbitrary code for "setup" and "go" now;
>   you're not tied to using buttons that exist in your
>   model
> - you can vary variables in any order you want, rather
>   than BehaviorSpace choosing the order for you
> - you can collect any result type you want, not just
>   numbers anymore
>      + added new "Update screen each iteration" checkbox for forever
>        buttons, for controlling whether a screen update is forced
>        each time through the button
>      + new primitive set-current-directory lets you set the folder
>        that file operations take place in
> * user interface improvements:
>      + improved look and feel throughout the application
>      + mouse scroll wheels now work
>      + models library dialog can be navigated with the keyboard
>      + dialog boxes support cut, copy, and paste (using keyboard
>        shortcuts)
>      + the command center and the Procedures and Errors tabs now use
>        the exact same syntax highlighting editor, resolving many
>        small issues and inconsistencies in behavior
>      + added a "Go to User Community Models web page" button to the
>        Models Library dialog
>      + fixed longstanding Windows bug where the output area of the
>        command center could only hold 25K; there is now no known
>        limit
>      + the graphics window and plots are flicker-free now
>      + plots containing very large numbers of points are faster now
>      + you can now press the Enter or Return key to close dialog
>        boxes
>      + when turtle shapes are off, if the patch size is at least 5
>        then turtles are now drawn slightly smaller than the patches,
>        so if a turtle is in the center of its patch, you can still
>        see the patch color around its edges
>      + agent monitors now report syntax errors to you instead of
>        silently ignoring them
>      + graphics control strip icons have tooltips now
>      + improved the automatic sizing and positioning of the main
>        NetLogo window so that available screen real estate is more
>        fully utilized
>      + changed the keyboard shortcuts for zooming, indenting, and
>        commenting to more standard choices
>      + fixed bug where if you made changes to your code in the
>        Errors tab and then saved your model without switching tabs
>        first, your changes wouldn't be saved
> * language changes:
>      + changes in random number generation:
> - NetLogo now uses the research-grade Mersenne Twister
>   algorithm to generate all random events
> - added new random-gamma primitive for generating
>   gamma-distributed random numbers
> - added new random-float primitive that always returns a
>   floating point number
> - changed random primitive so it always returns an
>   integer, not a floating point number
> - added new random-int-or-float primitive that behaves the
>   way random used to; when opening an old NetLogo 1.x
>   model, all uses of random will automatically be changed
>   to random-int-or-float, but we suggest you edit the
>   model and change every occurrence to either random or
>   random-float, as appropriate
>      + atan 0 0 is now a runtime error, and so is using towards (and
>        towardsxy and so on) to ask for the heading from a point to that
>        same point
>      + we now support unary minus if you put parentheses around it,
>        so for example you can now write (- x)
>      + added new n-values reporter for conveniently constructing
>        lists by repeatedly running a reporter
>      + added new reporters patch-ahead, patch-right-and-ahead,
>        patch-left-and-ahead, and patch-at-heading-and-distance
>        (helpful for giving turtles "vision", among other uses)
>      + added new shuffle reporter for shuffling a list
>      + added new modes reporter for finding the most frequently
>        appearing items in a list
>      + added new remove-item primitive for removing an item from a
>        list (or string) at a specified position
>      + added new turtles-on primitive for collecting the set of
>        turtles (or turtles of a particular breed) standing on a
>        patch or set of patches
>      + added new ifelse-value reporter (lets you put conditionals in
>        reporters; this is the same as what StarLogoT called
>        ifelse-report)
>      + added new in-radius-nowrap reporter (like in-radius, but
>        doesn't wrap around screen edges)
>      + the display primitive now has the additional function of
>        forcing an immediate screen update, since the graphics window
>        in NetLogo 2.0 sometimes skips frames
>      + new primitives turtles-from and patches-from provide a
>        powerful new way to construct agentsets
>      + random-one-of and random-n-of now work on lists too, not just
>        agentsets
>      + the show primitive now puts double quotes around strings, so
>        you can distinguish them from other values; there is also a
>        new write primitive that behaves the same way, but doesn't
>        show the agent
>      + butfirst and butlast now cause a runtime error if given an
>        empty list as input
>      + the color constants (red, blue, and so on) are now floating
>        point numbers, not integers, since turtle and patch colors
>        are always floating point
>      + the display and no-display commands may now be used by
>        turtles and patches as well as by the observer
>      + primitives such as import-world and
>        hubnet-set-client-interface now interpret relative pathnames
>        as relative to the location of the model, not relative to the
>        location of the application
>      + old models will automatically be updated to reflect the
>        following changes when opened in the new version:
> - dropped support for pc as an alias for pcolor
> - renamed any to any? and user-yes-or-no to
>   user-yes-or-no?
> - renamed histogram to histogram-from
> - dropped support for set-plot-pen as an alias for
>   create-temporary-plot-pen
> * engine fixes:
>      + fixed bug where using report or stop inside a repeat or
>        foreach loop could cause incorrect results or a Java
>        exception
>      + fixed bug where some primitives (including value-from, -of,
>        distance, towards, and inspect) did not deal properly with
>        dead turtles
>      + fixed bug where every didn't work as expected when used
>        inside an explicit without-interruption
>      + fixed issue where using without-interruption always caused an
>        agent's turn to end after the code inside ran
>      + fixed bug where under certain very obscure circumstances dead
>        turtles could continue to execute code for a short time after
>        dying
>      + fixed obscure bug where if a turtle agentset was stored in a
>        variable and in a turtle in the set died, then under certain
>        circumstances, code that subsequently tried to use the
>        agentset could cause a Java exception
>      + fixed bug where using hatch with a negative number could
>        cause a Java exception (now it just does nothing)
>      + fixed bug where min and max didn't signal a runtime error in
>        every case if given an list with no numbers in it
>      + fixed towards (and towards-nowrap, towardsxy, and
>        towardsxy-nowrap) to return numbers in the range [0,360), not
>        [-90,270) as they previously did
>      + fixed bug where numbers in sliders displayed in scientific
>        notation could be shown with an incorrect exponent
>      + fixed minor issue where remove primitive evaluated its
>        arguments right-to-left instead of left-to-right
> * computer HubNet improvements:
>      + computer HubNet is no longer alpha or beta, but a normal
>        release
>      + improved reliability
>      + greatly improved graphics window mirroring features and
>        performance; this is now no longer considered an
>        "experimental" feature
>      + improved activity: Tragedy of the Commons (now out of
>        unverified)
>      + new unverified activities: Polling Advanced, Gridlock
>        Alternate, Beer Game, Beer Game Alternate 1, Beer Game
>        Alternate 2
>      + server now asks for a name for the computer that is running
>        the activity; this can be the facilitator's name or some
>        other name; it is displayed on the clients in the server menu
>      + server menu on clients now only lists servers that are
>        running a compatible version of NetLogo, and the version is
>        also checked when connecting
>      + you can now export data from a plot in a client (by right or
>        control clicking)
>      + new feature: text input widgets in clients enables clients to
>        input text or NetLogo code into the simulation
>
>
> Reporting Bugs:
>
> We would appreciate your comments and bug reports.  If you find a bug,
> please send us a bug report (as detailed as you can -- including OS,
> method of running NetLogo, commands used, attach your model if
> possible, etc.) so that we can correct the bug as speedily as
> possible. Please send bug reports to [hidden email].
>
> Feedback:
>
> To provide feedback to the NetLogo development team, please send email
> to [hidden email] or visit our contact page at
> http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/contact.shtml .
>
> Getting Started:
>
> To get started using NetLogo, visit our web page:
> http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/ .
>
> Receiving Release Announcements:
>
> To receive announcements of NetLogo releases and new features,
> subscribe to the netlogo-announce mailing list. To subscribe to
> netlogo-announce, send a message to:
> [hidden email]
>
> The body of the message should say:
> subscribe netlogo-announce your-first-name your-last-name
>
> To be removed from the announcements list, send a message to:
> [hidden email]
>
> The body of the message should say:
> unsubscribe netlogo-announce
>
> Joining the netlogo-users group:
>
> We also have a Yahoo! group where users can discuss NetLogo
> with each other and with the CCL team.  To join the group, or
> just to browse the group's message archives, visit:
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/netlogo-users/
>
> There is also a Yahoo! group specially designed for educators
> using NetLogo. To join the group, or just to browse the group's
> message archives, visit:
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/netlogo-educators/
>
>
> NetLogo 2.0 files
>
> The release package for NetLogo 2.0 includes:
>
> * "NetLogo" and "HubNet Client" applications
> * "NetLogo.jar", "NetLogoLite.jar", "HubNet.jar", and "MRJAdapter.jar"
>      internal support files
> * "Docs" folder containing a "NetLogo User Manual" -- complete
>      documentation in HTML and printable PDF formats
> * "Models" folder containing the NetLogo Models Library of Sample
>     Models, Curricular Models, Code Examples, and HubNet Activities
> * Uninstall NetLogo application and support files
>     (Windows users only)
> * ReadMe file
>
>
> Credits
>
> NetLogo was designed by Uri Wilensky, project leader and director of
> the CCL.  The lead developer is Seth Tisue.  Many others have greatly
> contributed.  HubNet was jointly designed by Uri Wilensky and Walter
> Stroup.  The development of NetLogo and HubNet (both calculator and
> computer versions) is part of the Participatory Simulations project --
> a collaboration between Northwestern University's Center for Connected
> Learning and Computer-Based Modeling (CCL) and the University of Texas
> at Austin.
>
> The design of NetLogo was supported through funding from the National
> Science Foundation (grants REC 9814682, REC 0126227).  Additional
> support for the design of HubNet (calculator version) was provided by
> Texas Instruments.
>
> Enjoy,
> --
>                                 -Uri
>                 ------------------------------------------------
> Uri Wilensky
> Associate Professor of Learning Sciences and Computer Science
> Director, Center for Connected Learning and Computer-based Modeling
> Annenberg Hall 311
> Northwestern University
> 2120 Campus Drive
> Evanston, IL 60208
> email: [hidden email]
> WWW: http://ccl.northwestern.edu/uri/
>
>

Owen Densmore          908 Camino Santander       Santa Fe, NM 87505
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