NetLogo 6.1 beta release

[Uri Wilensky]

The Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling at Northwestern University is pleased to announce NetLogo 6.1-RC2, available for free download from our site at https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/download.shtml. (Select NetLogo 6.1.0-RC2 from the drop down list).

This release is a beta release, and is a close-to-final version of 6.1. It would be very helpful if you could test drive the beta release.  Thanks in advance for any testing you do! Please email us with any bugs you find at bu...@ccl.northwestern.edu.

 

The NetLogo user community continues to experience much growth. We've had many hundreds of thousands of downloads in the past year from our website. Maintaining the large code-base, adding features to support our users, and expanding the models library requires considerable resources. Please consider making a donation at our site http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/giving.shtml. All donation sizes help.

NetLogo 6.1-RC2 improves on NetLogo 6.0.4 by offering library models changes, bugfixes, extension updates, and new features.

Most models created in NetLogo 5 or later will work in NetLogo 6 after automatic conversion upon first opening the model. Models created in NetLogo 4 or earlier should be opened in NetLogo 5 first and saved before opening in NetLogo 6. If you have any trouble, please consult: http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/6.1/docs/transition.html.

Feature Changes

A premier feature for this release is an extensions manager for installing and updating extensions, which is available under the Tools menu. Using extensions with NetLogo could be a painful process: manually finding them, downloading them, and getting them correctly installed in the NetLogo application. The extensions manager addresses these issues by automating the installation of many 3rd-party extensions, and the updating of the bundled extensions between NetLogo releases. All done easily from within the application. In fact, if you open a model that requires an extension you don’t have installed that it knows about, the extension manager will ask if you’d like to download and install it right on the spot, without any extra effort

Other new features include:

• The primitives ifelse and ifelse-value now take a varying number of clauses, making selecting a single case from a variety of options much simpler.
• Added a new primitive, up-to-n-of, which gives as many items from a list as possible up to some limit, without causing an error if it cannot get all of them. Previously, to safely use n-of when you were unsure of the number of agents in an agentset would require some verbose code like ask n-of (ifelse-value (count turtles-here < 10) [count turtles-here] [10]) turtles-here [ fd 10 ], but now you can simple write ask up-to-n-of turtles-here [ fd 10 ] to get the same effect.
• Added new hotkeys: Command-U for "Show Usage" of a term, Command-E for "Jump to Declaration" of a procedure, and Command-Option-S for "Save All" when using included NetLogo code files. Or Ctrl-U, Ctrl-E, Ctrl-Alt-S for Windows and Linux users.
• Multiline input widgets are now directly editable on the interface tab.
• Runtime optimizations for the in-radius and in-cone primitives.

Bugfixes

• When a model that has a compile-time error is saved, its sliders will not reset their values to 0 when it is reloaded.
• The procedures search dropdown on the Code tab gives better results with inexact search terms.
• Plot pen names with quotes in them are properly stored and loaded.
• Plot pen names are now case-insensitive, just like other items in NetLogo.
• When a plot is deleted and the action is undone, the plot continues to work afterward.
• 2D NetLogo models saved in NetLogo 3D can be opened back into 3D, or de-converted by re-opening in NetLogo 2D.
• Widgets can no longer be re-sized to be completely outside the interface tab.
• Code comments can be used as normal within an __includes keyword file list.
• The error message for getting the mean of an empty list should now make more sense.
• Double-clicking an empty experiment list in BehaviorSpace will not cause an error.
• BehaviorSpace experiments are better about warning when there are astronomical numbers of run combinations.
• Anonymous procedures can be given in the conditional reporter blocks of ifelse-value.
• Slight changes to how color values are calculated, for smoother interoperability with NetLogo Web.

Extension Changes

• The Python extension, py, is now bundled with NetLogo. If you have Python installed on your computer, you can use it from inside a NetLogo model.
• The Control Flow extension, cf, has been removed from NetLogo in favor of the new variadic ifelse and ifelse-value behavior. The cf extension is still available from the extensions library if needed for any existing models.
• The CSV extension, csv, had some minor documentation updates.
• The GoGo board extension, gogo, should work more reliably on Windows 10.
• The Network extension, nw, now loads data in a predictable order when imported, and it correctly handles preferential attachment.
• The Table extension, table, had some minor documentation updates.
• The View 2.5D extension, view2.5d, now does not throw an error when trying to use a turtle-based view.

Documentation Changes

• Added documentation around using primitives like mean and variance along with agentsets producing slightly different results due to floating point arithmetic.
• Clarify what clear-ticks is meant to do.
• Clarify that clear-globals doesn't affect interface globals.
• Fixed various formatting errors and typos.

Model Changes

New Curricular models:

• PNoM Curriculum
  • PNoM 1 Diffusion Sandbox
  • PNoM 2 Diffusion Sensor Sandbox
  • PNoM 3 Virtual Syringe
  • PNoM 4 Virtual Syringe Force Graph
  • PNoM 5 Virtual Syringe Temperature Graph
  • PNoM 6 Particle Sandbox Gravity
  • PNoM 7 Particle Sandbox Intermolecular

Sample Model Updates:

• Mandelbrot: Exposed max-iterations parameter and significantly updated Info Tab.
• Raindrops 3D: Remove unused procedure.
• Perceptron: Fix weight visualization bug.
• Tumor: Prevent ask nobody bug when using the kill buttons more than once.
• Reactor X-Section: Fix typo and extend manual rod depth.
• Rock Paper Scissors: Minor Info tab updates.
• Sandpile: Minor Info tab updates.
• SmoothLife: Allows NLW compatibility by skipping some plot drawing.
• Wolf Sheep Predation: Fix typos in Code tab.

Code Example Updates:

• LS Parent Example: Change button display name to avoid confusion with setup button.
• Mouse Drag Multiple Example: The model has been rewritten to be NLW compatible.
• Mouse Drag One Example: The model has been updated to be NLW compatible

With the introduction of the new variadic ifelse and ifelse-value primitives, the Models Library has been updated to reflect this new functionality. These updates are divided into three major sections:

• Add parens to ifelse-value expressions that are arguments of infix operator.
• Remove unnecessary parentheses from ifelse-value invocations for models that use ifelse-value with a simple infix conditional: >, <, <=, >=, and =. This results in changes to the models listed below.
• Remove now unnecessary parens from calls to ifelse-value with more complex conditionals.

And here are the models affected by these changes:

• Code Examples:
  • Beatbox
  • HSB and RGB Example
  • NW General Examples
• Curricular Models:
  • BEAGLE: DNA Protein Synthesis, DNA Replication Fork
  • GenEvo 1 Genetic Switch
  • Lattice Land - Explore
  • ModelSim: Bacteria Food Hunt
  • NIELS: Current in a Wire HubNet
  • ProbLab: 4 Blocks, 4 Block Stalagmites, 4 Block Two Stalagmites, Histo Blocks
• HubNet Activities:
  • Minority Game HubNet
  • Predator Prey Game HubNet
  • Prisoners Dilemma HubNet
  • Root Beer Game HubNet
• IABM Textbook:
  • Traffic Basic Adaptive Individuals
• Sample Models:
  • Artificial Neural Net - Multilayer
  • Artificial Neural Net - Perceptron
  • Bidding Market
  • Blood Sugar Regulation
  • DLA Alternate Linear
  • DLA Alternate
  • Echo
  • Hotelling's Law
  • Language Change
  • Minority Game
  • Robby the Robot
  • Signaling Game
  • Simple Genetic Algorithm
  • Tabonuco Yagrumo
  • Tabonuco Yagrumo Hybrid
  • Traffic 2 Lanes
  • Vision Evolution

Known Issues

We encourage our users to report any bugs they find with NetLogo 6 to our bugs mailing list, and other feedback to our feedback mailing list. We encourage users who encounter a bug to consult this wiki page which lists current major problems as users report them to us and offers advice on how to alleviate or work around them.

This list below contains several issues known to us at the time of the release of 6.1-RC2:

• The vid extension produces videos that don't play properly in Windows (the same video plays correctly on a Mac, however). It appears to play videos created by other sources properly.
• The arduino extension doesn't work properly in Windows 10 under 64-bit NetLogo. It doeswork properly running under 32-bit NetLogo. We recommend windows users who want to work with the arduino extension install the 32-bit version of NetLogo.
• There are problems editing the HubNet interface after importing a HubNet client interface from the interface tab of another model.
• Some Users continue to have problems initially launching NetLogo 6 in Mac OS Sierra / High Sierra. More information (including a partial workaround for the problem) is available here.

Credits

NetLogo was designed and authored by Uri Wilensky, project leader and director of the CCL. The core development team includes Jeremy Baker, Jason Bertsche, Robert Grider, Bryan Head, Charly Resendiz, Seth Tisue and Nicolas Payette. Many others have contributed greatly. HubNet was jointly designed by Uri Wilensky and Walter Stroup.

The CCL gratefully acknowledges two decades of support for our NetLogo work. The original support came from the National Science Foundation -- grant numbers REC-9814682 and REC-0126227. Further support has come from REC-0003285, REC-0115699, DRL-0196044, CCF-ITR-0326542, DRL-REC/ROLE-0440113, SBE-0624318, EEC-0648316, IIS-0713619, DRL-RED-9552950, DRL-REC-9632612, and DRL-DRK12-1020101, IIS-1441552, CNS-1441016, CNS-1441041, CNS-1138461, IIS-1438813, IIS-1147621, DRL-REC-1343873, IIS-1438813, IIS-1441552, CNS-1441041, IIS-1546120, DRL-1546122, DRL-ITEST-1614745, DRL-1640201, NSF STEMC-1745938. and NSF STEMC-1842374. Additional support came from the Spencer Foundation, Texas Instruments, the Brady Fund, the Murphy fund, and the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems.

All the best,

—Uri

Uri Wilensky

Lorraine H. Morton Professor of Learning Sciences, Computer Science and Complex Systems

Director, Center for Connected Learning  and Computer-Based Modeling

Northwestern University

[Akis G]

THANKS Uri for the beta release! :-)

Any prediction, when the stable version will be out?

A.