Swarm: applications

Revision as of 01:52, 23 March 2006

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We make a wide variety of Swarm models available. These illustrate the many different kinds of research questions addressed using agent-based models, and provide example ideas and software for other modelers.

Demo page

For newcomers, here is a peek at a couple of classic Swarm applications.

How to choose and run example applications

Objective-C or Java?

You need to decide whether you will write your Swarm programs using Objective-C or Java. Aside from obvious points (such as the fact that you might already be more familiar with one of the languages), here are the pros and cons of the two languages:

• In the world of software development, at least one hundred times as much programming is done in Java as in Objective-C. So you'll find more people and books that can help you with Java than with Objective-C. You'll also find more third-party libraries so, for example, if your model is three-dimensional, you might choose to abandon Swarm's visual interface (which uses TCL) in favor of Java's Java3D technology.

• Java was created much later than Objective-C, and presumably takes advantage of the advances in language design that occurred after Objective-C was created.

• Probably more Swarm programs have been written in Objective-C than in Java, so there are more Swarm-specific programming models in Objective-C than in Java. On the other hand, given the size of the universe of all individual-based models that anyone might like to program in Swarm, unless you know of a relevant existing model right now, you're not likely to find anything more useful than the standard Swarm demos available in both languages.

• If one language is faster at run time, it's likely to be Objective-C. However, the difference is likely to be slight. You should not accept claims about speed without seeing a relevant benchmark. Try googling benchmark java objective-c.

• Since the Java interface to the Swarm engine is generated automatically, identical functionality is available in both languages. Thus functionality would never be a reason for choosing one language over the other.

Listed below are sites where you can download Swarm models. To run them:

Objective-C applications

• Download and un-zip the archive. The archives are usually in TAR GZIP format (e.g., HeatBugs.tar.gz), which you can unzip (in a Linux terminal window or, if using Windows, in Cygwin) by typing "tar xzvf HeatBugs.tar.gz".
• Change directories into the newly unzipped directory of source code.
• If your Swarm installation is set up correctly, you can then compile the application by simply typing "make".
• If compilation is successful, you will have a new executable file (e.g., "heatbugs.exe" in Windows; "heatbugs" in Linux). Then you can start the model by typing "./heatbugs.exe" (or, in Linux, "./heatbugs").
• A common problem is not having your system's SWARMHOME environment variable correctly pointed to the location of your Swarm installation. SWARMHOME should typically be /usr/local/ or /usr/ if you've installed it from a binary package on a GNU/Linux system. For Windows, see Windows_binary_notes

Java applications

We provide explicit instructions for running the Java program Jheatbugs-3.0 on Windows XP using Swarm 2.2. Other programs are also available in Java.

Official applications archive

Our official archive of Swarm applications is at http://ftp.swarm.org/pub/swarm/apps/. Even though these models are generally old, many of them still work in Swarm 2.2. There are far more Objective-C than Java applications in the archive.

The archive includes Java versions of the Swarm classics heatbugs and mousetrap. The versions that worked with Swarm-2.1.1 and Swarm-2.2 are currently available in the testing subdirectory of the ftp archive. Look for jheatbugs-2001-03-28.tar.gz and jmousetrap-2001-09-13.tar.gz.

We strongly encourage people to contribute new applications! The site includes a form for describing contributions.

Paul Johnson's package of Objective-C applications

Paul Johnson has generously assembled a new package of applications for Swarm-2.2. This is a revised version, correcting a couple of glitches in saving of screen snapshots. It is available from Paul's web site: http://www.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm/swarmapps-objc-2.2-2.tar.gz and also at the Swarm download site: http://ftp.swarm.org/pub/swarm/apps/objc/sdg/swarmapps-objc-2.2-2.tar.gz. Please keep testing and let Paul know how it works.

The package contains classic example Swarm applications, including:

• The Swarm tutorial (discussed in the Swarm User Guide)
• Heatbugs
• Mousetrap
• ArborgamesII (a simulation of forests used in publications by M. Savage et al.)
• SchellingII (Schelling's neighborhood segregation model)
• Conway (the Game of Life)
• sss (Swarm Sugar Scape).

We are soliciting volunteers who want to maintain some 'orphaned' applications from swarmapps-2.1.1. These apps that need love and attention are market, template, and hello-world. If you are interested in taking on one of those applications, or offering up other applications, contact PJ.

Additional links

• The world-famous Artificial Stock Market has its own homepage at http://artstkmkt.sourceforge.net (Objective-C)
• Paul Johnson keeps many examples of Swarm-related code, his own models, and other people's models, at: http://www.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm/
• Keep your eye on the Agent-based modeling community pages for projects using Swarm.
• See the software resources at the ABM Resources area of the wiki for a series of template models in Java and Objective-C Swarm, and for guidance on using Swarm with integrated development environments.