RE: [Repast-developer] Controller hierarchy

[Nick C. <nic...@ve...>]

Hi all, 

I think there's a bit of confusion here. What's included in repast 2.0
is not Mike's FAST framework (a framework for distributed repast -- more
or less -- simulations) but rather code that enables the true
parallelization of scheduled actions. The intention is that expensive or
long running actions can be scheduled to run in parallel with typical
sequential scheduled actions. 

Maybe Mike can say more about the relationship of something like FAST to
these new parallel actions.

Anyway, my point is that repast 2.0 doesn't give you framework for fully
distributed parallel simulations out of the box. We are pursuing 
something like this, however. Tom has looked into Globus, Condor and
lately ProActive  (http://www-sop.inria.fr/oasis/ProActive/) in this
context. I think it will be a priority for him once he gets the current
round of GIS code sorted. Maybe he can say more, although I know he's
away for a few days at the moment.

Nick

On Fri, 2002-12-13 at 09:55, Frank Blecha wrote:
> 
> I'm also curious as to the inclusion of that feature. - Frank
> 
> On Thu, 12 Dec 2002, Scholand, Andrew J wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Work in this vein is often termed 'embarrassingly parallel' or parametric
> > computing - see for example NimRod/G,
> > http://www.globus.org/research/applications/nimrod.html.  Might be a good
> > tie in with Mike North's parallelized RePast engines, which I believe will
> > be in 2.0? 
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Andy
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Skye Bender-deMoll
> > To: rep...@li...; nic...@ve...
> > Sent: 12/12/2002 1:11 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Repast-developer] Controller hierarchy
> > 
> > 
> > Hi nick, and folks,
> >    Was just remembering a conversation we had a long time ago about 
> > the idea of a ParameterSpaceExplorer, which seems relevant to the 
> > controller discussion.
> > 
> > Crudely, the idea is pretty much the same as doing runs from a batch 
> > file, but the batch file has a GUI and data presentation of its 
> > results.  So after someone has finished coding a model, and wants to 
> > explore "results" over a particular range of parameters, they could 
> > load the ParameterSpaceExplorer, enter the range, parameter sampling 
> > density, and number of repetitions per point, and come back in a 
> > couple of hours to a nicely collected data set.  Of course this 
> > requires that models have well defined stopping conditions (or a set 
> > number of steps), and report clear numeric results of some kinds.
> > 
> > In the (rare) case where there are two main input parameters of 
> > interest, and one result parameter, we could have nice 2.5D plots of 
> > results, or if multiple result params, allow switching between result 
> > plots...    Could also calc "pseduo"-error ranges and stdv.   Then 
> > the user can say, "hmm, what's this discontinuity on the graph, is it 
> > just randomness?  lets do another 300 runs, more closely spaced along 
> > parameter-x, and see what we get..click click.."
> > 
> > Another advantage is that it might help people (us model coders) 
> > focus their (our) thinking on "OK, what are my inputs, and what are 
> > my results, and what does it mean" instead of just, "WOW! isn't that 
> > pretty!"  I don't by any means mean to dis good graphical 
> > representations of a sim, as I think they are incredibly important, 
> > but I think it is also good to help formulate a "question" and 
> > "results" approach as well.
> > 
> > I know it is better to do things than suggest them, but I've got all 
> > the java I can handle at the moment with this network stuff.  But I 
> > thought I'd throw the idea out there again, just in case coordination 
> > between DataSource, DataRecorder, and the Controller interface might 
> > be useful or necessary in the future...
> > 
> > cheers,
> >    -skye
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
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> 
-- 
Nick Collier 
Social Science Research Computing 
University of Chicago 
http://repast.sourceforge.net