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PDP++ v. 2.0b!
The beta release of v. 2.0 of the PDP++ software is now available for
downloading from the grey.colorado.edu ftp site:
ftp://grey.colorado.edu/pub/oreilly/pdp++/
-rw-rw-r-- 1 oreilly oreilly 4397507 Jun 2 00:15 pdp++_2.0b_bin_LINUX.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 oreilly oreilly 4296860 Jun 2 00:15 pdp++_2.0b_ext.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 oreilly oreilly 84616 Jun 2 00:15 pdp++_2.0b_ivinc.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 oreilly oreilly 487784 Jun 2 00:15 pdp++_2.0b_ivlib_LINUX_g++.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 oreilly oreilly 6414529 Jun 2 00:15 pdp++_2.0b_src.tar.gz
(note that the ivinc and ivlib files have not actually changed since
the most recent 1.3 and 2.0a releases, but are provided with the 2.0b
just to be complete)
This version contains lots of new features, summarized below, and has
been reasonably well tested within my lab. I would strongly encourage
others to test it thoroughly so as to locate as many remaining bugs as
possible before the full release! I will be uploading binaries for
the SUN4 (solaris) and SGI platforms soon.
- Randy
This file contains a summary of important changes from the previous
release of PDP++. See the ChangeLog file for a comprehensive, though
less comprehensible, list.
===========================================
Release 2.0beta
===========================================
ISSUES WITH OLD PROJECTS:
- A number of object members have been removed or renamed, so you
should expect a large number of "xxx not found" warnings when
loading old projects -- these can all be ignored.
- Older projects didn't set the other_idx indexes in con groups, which
point to the corresponding sending/receiving con group. These are
now checked for and if not set, nothing can be run. So, you need to
either reconnect your network (ConnectAll) or run FixPrjnIndexes on
the network (avail in the Network Actions menu). A warning will
prompt you to do this.
NEW FEATURES:
- First and foremost, all known reliable means of crashing the
software have been fixed! Please report any further reliable
crashes you find so they can also be fixed.
- Help option added to every object -- pulls up netscape by default
and points it at relevant section of pdp manual.
- New Project View -- provides overall view of the principal objects
in the project (Networks, Environments, Processes, Stats, Logs) so
you can see what is there at one glance, and everything can be
manipulated just like in the NetView. This is most important for
processes -- you can view/modify what the processes are connected
to, how all the stats are arranged, what logs they send to, etc.
Should make configuring processes much easier.
- Environment View totally rewritten -- allows interactive editing of
event specs that control layout of the events, much in the way
networks can be constructed in the NetView. Display of event
information is now *much* more efficient and crashproof. Use
SetToLayer in spec editing to automatically configure a pattern to
fit a given network layer.
- GridLog totally rewritten -- used to crash when resized, etc. Now
can arrange display in the header using left mouse button to move,
middle to resize, and right to edit.
- "Grid View Weights" option in Network/Actions menu -- displays
network weights for an entire layer of units in a grid log view.
- "Dist Matrix Grid" and "Env To Grid" options in Environment. First
displays distance matrix between all items in a grid log, second
sends all patterns to a grid log for easier, more configurable
viewing.
- Cluster Plot in Environment now displays in a Graph Log (used to
require xgraph). Graph Log can now display text data using Y axis
as immediately preceding data column.
- Many improvements to the basic View technology used in the NetView,
EnviroView, and GridLogView:
- Selecting and manipulating (resizing, moving) objects is much more
intuitive. Whatever is current selected is manipulated. Things
that cannot be manipulated are automatically not selected for
manipulation. To manipulate a subobject, just click and release
-- the release will select the next level down (e.g., units within
a unit group), and then the next click will manipulate that
object. Previous system required major finger gymnastics to get
the right thing selected.
- Editing of textual stuff can be accomplished by clicking right
mouse button on the object, which will pull up an edit dialog.
- Images no longer migrate across to different views.
- Display is automatically Init-ialized after moving, resizing, etc.
- NetView/Network improvements:
- much better projection arrow positioning algorithm.
- confusion between View and Select mode minimized because only
units can be selected for Viewing (viewing weights).
- listing of network variables now has weights first, then
unit-level stuff, so it is easier to switch between weights and
activation, esp for algoirthms that have a lot of unit-level
variables.
- New Disp Mode menu on right for selecting how to display values.
- Height-field displays now actually work as expected -- nice for
displaying continuously-varying variables (e.g., Kohonen-style
activation blobs).
- Text display is no longer done with separate objects -- much more
efficient and prevents problems View-ing unit weights with text
displayed.
- Netview is automatically updated when network objects are removed
outside of the netview.
- Left mouse now moves in the X (horiz) and Z (vert) planes, while
right button does X and Y (depth). X-Z is much more common.
- Moved CopyWeights, WriteWeights, ReadWeights to the Network Object
menu instead of the Actions menu -- all basic I/O should be in the
Object menu.
- Imported graphic displays (made by idraw) now work (can be
manipulated, saved, etc w/out crashing)
- Read/WriteOldPDP on Environment changed to Read/WriteText, and
rewritten so they actually work. # endgroup comment is now
superfluous.
- New Object menu options for all objects:
- Duplicate will duplicate object (used to only be on groups)
- CopyTo and CopyFrom used for copying, works even with subclasses
and super-classes of given object
- ChangeType will replace current object with one of a different
(related) type, copying exisiting info.
- With too many items to fit in menus, used to get "Over Max-menu" and
that was it, but now you can select an object from a file-chooser
like object-chooser dialog that shows all the objects.
- Object-chooser also available as a Browse function on root object --
you can traverse the entire object heirarchy and edit anything.
- No more view:: submenu in lots of menus -- was never used anyway.
- Edit dialogs all have a Show menu that enables controlling of what
level of detail is viewed. A Detail level of viewing is now
present, and these details are not visible by default, making it
easier to find the high-priority stuff. If you want to access
something that is not visible, use the Show menu.
- EpochProcesses much more robust to changes in environments during an
epoch -- no more crashing!