[seul-edu] Noble Ape

[Doug Loss <drloss@suscom.net>]

I've been talking to Tom Barbalet, the author of Noble Ape 
<http://www.nobleape.com/>, an interesting simulation of a primate 
population.  From the website:

"The Noble Ape Simulation has been developed (as the Nervana Simulation) 
since 1996. The aim of the simulation is to create a detailed biological 
environment and a cognitive simulation. The Simulation is intended as a 
palette for open source development. It provides a stable means of 
simulating large scale environments and cognitive processes."

I encourage everyone here to take a look at the website; it's quite 
intriguing.

Tom has written this application primarily for Macintosh OS/X, but he 
includes the source code.  He's interested in a Linux port and it looks 
as though the code is modular enough that a Linux port shouldn't be a 
big deal.  That's why I'm forwarding this message, to ask coders here to 
consider working with Tom on a Linux port.  I'll happily send along the 
ZIP file mentioned below to anyone who'd like to work on this.  Just let 
me know.

I talked to Tom on the telephone this morning, and he's excited about 
working with us on getting his program going on Linux.  Let's give him 
the help he needs!

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: Noble Ape files
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 18:05:02 +0000
From: Tom Barbalet <barbalet@users.sourceforge.net>
To: dloss@bloomu.edu, drloss@suscom.net

Dear Doug,

Good talking with you today. I have subbed to schoolforge and the
seul-edu mailing list.

Best regards,

Tom...

X-Sender:  (Unverified)
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 22:39:16 +0000
To: Doug Loss <drloss@suscom.net>,
  Tom Barbalet <barbalet@users.sourceforge.net>
From: Tom Barbalet <barbalet@users.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: Noble Ape
Status:

Dear Doug,

I have included a ZIP and a tar/bzip version of the same set of
directories. The sim directory contains the latest source (post
0.659) and the manual directory contains the Simulation Manual and
two additional programmer documents that introduce the software and
the graphics in particular.

In terms of porting, most of the software is platform independent -
all of the gui and core should be independent bar the definition of
black (0 or 255) in gui.h.

I have tested the CLE on UNIX - although I haven't included this
source. If your developers want to test this too, let me know.

In terms of porting, the platform independent interface is defined
through control.c WRT mouse and keyboard interaction. All graphics
are rendered primarily in display.c, with the graphics elements
combined in draw.c.

The graphics come in colour and monochrome array components as
detailed in the intro graphics HTML document. All that is needed for
the graphics is a monochrome (8 pixels per byte) and a colour (1
pixel per byte) copy-to-window function.

Menus etc are handled in platform.c. I have included the mac
directory because that is the current functional directory. Ideally
one of your developers would have a Mac OS X machine just for
comparison. Even a non-OS X Mac would be useful in terms of seeing
the final application working. The file handling component is being
reworked currently. This should be resolved by the time your
developers get into that section of the port.

For the Mac, compiling with Project Builder requires the
platform.rsrc file to be removed.

Any feedback on the software - the source, the documentation -
anything would be greatly received. I am more than happy to answer
any questions from developers. Please keep the correspondence through
the sourceforge email address for the time being.

Many thanks for your assistance.

Best regards,

Tom Barbalet...
--


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Doug Loss                 Courage is resistance to
Data Network Coordinator  fear, mastery of fear --
Bloomsburg University     not absence of fear.
dloss@bloomu.edu           Mark Twain