Documentation Set for Swarm 2.2
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VI. Simtools Library

Overview

Simtools is the stdlib of Swarm. In other words, it is the library where we have parked many miscellaneous classes which, while very useful, are not specific enough to be placed in any other library. So, for example, simtools contains InFile, ObjectLoader and other I/O classes. Simtools contains all non-GUI classes - for the miscellaneous classes that do depend on a GUI toolkit being present at link-time, see the documentation for the simtoolsgui library.

1. Dependencies

Following are the other header files imported by <simtools.h>: 

#import <objectbase.h>
The objectbase library interface is included to provide the basic object support. The random library is no longer included by default. You will need to explicitly include it to use the default random number generators.

Special global functions - global.h. Users need to include simtools.h in their code in order to call initSwarm() but also in order to get access to a set of important pre-initialized objects which are generated in every simulation (e.g. probeDisplayManager).

2. Compatibility

  • 1.0.5 -> 1.1. simtools has been split into two: simtools and simtoolsgui. The latter now contains all the classes which were GUI-related, so that users can compile and link pure-batch mode simulations (i.e. simulations that don't require Tk/Tcl/BLT, Java AWT or any GUI toolkit).

  • 1.0.4 -> 1.0.5. GUISwarm now inherits from GUIComposite. Because GUIComposite handles the passthru of archiving keys to tkobjc primitives, the method setControlPanelGeometryRecordName is no longer needed; instead, the macro SET_WINDOW_GEOMETRY_RECORD_NAME is provided.

  • 1.0.3 -> 1.0.4. All functions maintain backward compatibility. There are additional features, however, and features previously undocumented.

Table of Contents
AppendFile [Deprecated] --  A class for appended file output.
InFile [Deprecated] --  Class to perform file input.
NSelect --  A class to select exactly N elements at random from a collection.
ObjectLoader [Deprecated] --  A class to load an object's instance variables from a file.
ObjectSaver [Deprecated] --  A class to save an object's instance variables to a file.
OutFile [Deprecated] --  A class to perform file output.
QSort --  A class to sort a collection.
UName --  A class used to generate unique names (e.g. "critter1", "critter2" etc.)
General --  General simulation tools

Documentation and Implementation Status

The simtools library has undergone an upgrade to the status of a library as of 1.0.4. This means the interface now conforms to the library interfaces specifications, the format of the documentation now reflects this. Other than new features, there should be no affect on the user.

Revision History (simtools)
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GeneralUpAppendFile [Deprecated]