AppArchiver API?

[Christopher J. Mackie]

Since I'm using Swarm entirely in Java, I've been wondering if it's possible
to use java.util's 'Properties' class, or another configuration-parameter
interface, to substitute for the LispAppArchiver in Swarm?  When I tried to
build one in directly, it failed--I think b/c the Grid2d and other params
need to be available to the super() call in a ModelSwarm constructor, so
there's no direct way to load the properties before you hit the super()'s
InvalidArgument exception.  When I looked at the lispAppArchiver source, it
seemed hard-coded for lisp-style config files.

What I'm looking for (in descending order of preference) is:

1) a Java-based 'modelSwarmConfig' interface, to which I can pass a hash of
keys-values for startup params, and/or from which I can retrieve
current-config streams.
2) a Java-specific module (e.g., "javaAppArchiver") which requires a
particular config-file configuration
3) a code example for a Java-based workaround

Longer term, I want to be able to run communicating Swarms on different
machines, using some standard data-exchange interface (e.g., XML-RDF, etc.).
It would be extremely helpful if there were a 'SwarmConfig' interface onto
which I could glue different comm data models and parsers as needed.  IMHO,
that also seems like a better, more modular design, but I realize tastes on
this may vary.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, --Chris

=====================
Christopher J. Mackie
Princeton University
address@hidden


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