[Simulchaord-discuss] John Holland's ECHO & related works

[Paul Fernhout]

Following some more links:

Has source in C -- but doesn't say what the license is...
  http://www.santafe.edu/projects/echo/echo.html
I can't assume anything (like public domain) about the licensing...

"Echo is a simulation tool developed to investigate mechanisms which
regulate diversity and information-processing in systems comprised of
many interacting adaptive agents, or complex adaptive systems (CAS).
Echo agents interact via combat, trade and mating and develop strategies
to ensure survival in resource-limited environments. Individual
genotypes encode rules for interactions. In a typical simulation,
populations of these genomes evolve interaction networks which regulate
the flow of resources. Resulting networks resemble species communities
in ecological systems. Flexibly defined parameters and initial
conditions enable researchers to conduct a range of "what-if"
experiments."

That page also links to Gecko:
  http://peaplant.biology.yale.edu:8001/gecko.html
"Gecko is a spatial individual-based simulator for modeling ecosystem
dynamics. Individual agents are modeled as free-moving Spheres (animated
gif). (Non-animated picture for modem users.) Allometry, energetics, and
spatial constraints are stressed. Within the overall Gecko framework,
many different ecosystem models (2d and 3d) can be realized. The stress
on physical constraints makes Gecko models unusually suited to field
calibration as well as theoretical modeling. ... The latest version of
Gecko is written in Java, built on CourseWare, a Java 1.1 toolkit for
web-based interactive simulators. Gecko can run either over the web, or
as a local graphical or batch application. New simulator models are
written by adding or extending a few Java agent and landscape classes."

Gecko uses "Courseware" -- here is a link to Courseware, a Java 1.1
toolkit for web-based interactive simulators:
  http://gingerbooth.com/courseware/
However, Courseware does not quite appear to be free software -- it
seems to be sort of almost free for non-commercial use when part of a
larger application but with various restrictions including making
available your changes somehow to Yale on request -- judge for yourself: 
  http://gingerbooth.com/courseware/pages/toolkit_license.html
Courseware looks like nice work supported by grants (too bad most
grantors haven't yet caught on to requiring free licensing of what they
fund) and might have made a valueable platform for this project -- too
bad as the license doesn't fit with this project's guidelines (to only
rely on free software). 

My assumption is that the Gecko simulation essentially took the ECHO
code and rewrote it for Courseware platform with additions and changes
-- meaning ECHO may have a different license.

Here is a Java version of Echo:
 
http://www2.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~jacob/Evolvica/Echo/welcome.htm
But I don't see the source or a license there...

-Paul Fernhout
Kurtz-Fernhout Software 
=========================================================
Developers of custom software and educational simulations
Creators of the Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com