Tools+and+Tech

=Technology/Tools=

//Problems???// Remember to check out the Technical FAQ before emailing anybody. //Are you clever???// Please add your wisdom to the Technical FAQ.

General technical setup:
Ideally, you should create a folder called "C:\tools\" (i.e. "tools" on your C: drive). Put each of the programs below, and any other small programs, into this folder. E.g. c:\tools\netlogo\, c:\tools\processing\, etc. This will make it easier for me or anyone else to help you debug problems.

Generally these little programs that come from non-proprietary, non-windows backgrounds, will not have standard Windows installers. Instead they just unzip into a folder and as part of the unzipping they partition themselves out into subfolders, etc., in such a way that they will work immediately when you double-click the ".exe" file.

See my notes on installing processing below.

[|Netlogo]
Download: [|Netlogo download page (fill out the form, uncheck those boxes!)]

Installation instructions: I think it's a no-brainer -- haven't had any questions.

Our detailed Netlogo page.

General Intro:
[|Read the intro to the Online Manual] [|Basic Usage Tutorial]

Specific Examples:
From the Models Library (File->"Models Library"): >
 * Biology/flocking
 * Biology/fur
 * Biology/heatbugs
 * Biology/slime
 * Biology/(unverified)/Tabonuco Yagrumo Hybrid (note the System Dynamics diagram!)
 * Networks/Preferential Attachment
 * Networks/Giant Component
 * System Dynamics/Wolf-Sheep Predation (either one -- note the System Dynamics diagram)

From the Net: [|Wave Machine]

Other Links:
[|A coding tutorial] (there are probably more out there)

[|Processing]
Download: [|Processing ('with Java', which will make installation fool-proof)] (note, this links directly to the file, which is on the order of 20 MB, I think)

Our details page on Processing.

Installation instructions:
What you download is a .zip file. Unzip it into a folder somewhere good on your machine (e.g. a folder called "C:\tools\processing\"). Now processing will run, you just need to find the .exe file, which will be in the top folder of all the stuff that unzipped. It probably makes sense to create a shortcut from that file (processing.exe) to your desktop or wherever you like.
 * If you have to install java**, that may be one more step (or it might have just unzipped into the right folders and now it works). I already had java installed so I'm not 100% sure what the installation is like but I assume that when you try to run processing.exe, you'll get an error saying "you need java". There should be some kind of java installer in your download which you can double-click to install it.

General Intro:
[|The Processing homepage]

Processing Basics:
thanks to CW WANG

Specific Examples:
Simulations... [|Game of Life] [|Simple Cellular Automata] [|More C. Automata]

Other Links:
[|Processing community homepage] [|The main processing forum] (searchable!)

Pure Data (PD)
Download: [|The PD version you should download]

In-depth notes for installation, introduction, tutorials, etc.

General Intro:
(there is no good intro! ... read the homepage and browse [|this section] of the documentation)

"Pd stands for pure-data. As the name indicates, it attempts to treat data - which is everything a computer can think of - exactly as what it is: data. Pd does not make any assumptions on what this data might eventually represent. Whether it is sound or an image, a letter or the position in space, everything is expressed by numbers. And numbers can be added, subtracted and manipulated easily in any (mathematical) way. While these data are available as plain numbers in every computer software, high- level user applications usually do not allow one to access the data as such, but encapsulate it within artificial layers of abstraction, which encumbers the process of synaesthetic creation in an unnecessary way. Pd, on the other hand, does not differentiate between the various types of data presented, and thus allows one to more easily cross the borders between different perceptions.

Pd stands for public-domain. Being available as a Free Software / Open Source project, Pd is easily extensible with plugins written in other programming languages. While most of the interaction and modification of data can be done in plain pd, extensions allow one to access low-level hardware interfaces from within the environment, thus making new sources of sensor data accessible. Through its technical and political openness, Pd has aggregated a large number of software developers with both artistic and technical background, many of them adding, as they see the need, new possibilities of interaction between various types of data." //(from "PD and Synaesthesia" by zmoelnig)//

Specific Examples:
From the PD browser (Help->Browser): B10.sampler.scratch.pd (record something, play with it) C08.analog.sequencer.pd (play with the waveforms directly)

From the web: [|birds-use-stars (a music composition)] (start all the birds up, play with variables)

Other Links:
[|PD community homepage] [|Projects page] GEM homepage (GEM is a graphical plug-in for PD, to allow video editing and 3D graphics)