RE: Instantiating multiple ModelSwarms

[Fred Wan]

So if I understand this correctly, it isn't possible with PJ's script
(replicator.pl) to use any of the GUI facilities... I'm back to square one I
suppose.

>
> For me, I use GUI things mostly as a way to convince myself that
> things are working as intended and to get a sense of boundary
> conditions and parameter sensitivities.  Once I have this comfort
> level and a game plan for sweeps, the sweeps themselves are all done
> in parallel on multiple machines in batch mode (usually via a
> simple program
> that spawns via rsh, respawning as machines in the set return
> their results).
>

In essence this works the same for me. However, if you develop a model with,
say, very simple agents running about feeding, etc., the first step is to
implement this and try if it works with swarm, using the GUI facilities.
Now, the implementation is comfortably bug-free and you want run experiments
but you still want to track the experiment's progress. So you change your
program so that the control panel is on top controlling  the different runs
and an EZGraph to show you some results. This is ExperSwarm. So far so good,
you can watch your experiment's progress and stop it whenever you want (when
some unexpected outcomes appear, for instance). The next step could
extending your model, e.g., letting the  agents communicate. So you modify
the agents' architecture. Unexpected rusults appear on the EZGraph (flat
lines or something) and you want to know what's causing them. At this time
you long to see your familiar Grid2dDisplay, probes, etc. This is a problem,
because you now need to put all of this low-level GUI stuff back into the
program and disable the batch facilities. VERY uncomfortable. Wouldn't it be
a lot easier if you could switch the low level GUI's (Grid2dDisplay etc.)
off if you don't need them, i.e., if you're comfortable enough to run
batches, and on again if you extend your model or get unexpected results?

So, of course this is all about comfort... Now, apparently nested GUISwarms
are not feasible, but how to approach this then? I'm at a loss I must say.


                  ==================================
   Swarm-Support is for discussion of the technical details of the day
   to day usage of Swarm.  For list administration needs (esp.
   [un]subscribing), please send a message to <address@hidden>
   with "help" in the body of the message.