Swarm main page
Contents |
Swarm Main Page UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Swarm is a platform for agent-based models (ABMs) that includes:
- A conceptual framework for designing, describing, and conducting experiments on ABMs;
- Software implementing that framework and providing many handy tools; and
- A community of users and developers that share ideas, software, and experience.
Swarm materials are organized in three categories: Software, Documentation and learning materials, and Applications and examples.
Getting started if you are new to Swarm
First, see this short introduction.
Next, it is important to develop an understanding of Swarm's conceptual framework: how you organize and describe a model using concepts such as swarms, collections, actions, schedules, observers, etc. The original Santa Fe Institute File:MinarEtAl96.pdf is a good way to learn Swarm's basic structure and motivation. The Documentation and learning materials page provides additional reading that is essential before trying to start using the software (even---especially---if you are an experienced programmer).
Finally, you will want to install Swarm software and use its documentation and examples to learn how to implement your models. (You might first want to visit the wiki's ABM resources section to see if there are other software platforms to consider.
Getting the Swarm software
Go to the stable release page.
Our download site for Swarm software (source, example applications, documentation, packages) is http://ftp.swarm.org/pub/swarm
Getting user support
User support is obtained by joining the Swarm support email list, where questions are likely to be answered by one of your many generous fellow Swarm users.
Where Swarm development happens: GNU Savannah site
The CVS, bug tracking and development for Swarm is hosted on GNU Savannah: run by the Free Software Foundation for hosting free software projects.
The latest source tarballs for Swarm and swarmapps will be made available there, so it acts as a partial mirror if you can't access ftp.swarm.org or one of the other mirrors. In the future, we plan to use some of Savannah's features for co-ordinating projects and/or allow users to co-ordinate their own Swarm-related projects.
Several users also use SourceForge for co-ordinating their projects, these are independent from the SDG:
- Artificial Stock Market: http://sourceforge.net/projects/artstkmkt/
- Evo: http://sourceforge.net/projects/evo/
Numbering convention
Swarm is divided into three main pieces: source, documentation, and applications. They are each bestowed version numbers that are independently increased except for major releases of the source. The version map right now is:
source: 2.2
docs: 2.2
apps: 2.1.1 (being updated)
heatbugs: 2.1.1
template: 2.1.1
market: 2.1.1
mousetrap: 2.1.1
tutorial: 2.1.1
hello-world: 2.1.1
![[Main Page]](/stylesheets/images/wiki.png)