jACT-R, Alpha Release

[Anthony Harrison]

  Well, folks, now that John and Christian have had a chance to see the
fruits of my labor, I'm pleased to announce the alpha/beta-ish release of
jACT-R, an open source, Java (1.2) implementation of ACT-R (5.0).

  This is a work in progress and I am looking for people to assist in the
development. I have published the code under GPL, and it is downloadable
via the web or CVS (coming shortly). Those who know the theory and have
experience with Java are invited to contact me and I will set up commit
privileges for the CVS repository.


What exists:
	- The core ACT-R 5.0 system is in place (sorry, no 4.0)
	- RPM-visual skeleton is in place, but needs to be
	  seriously fleshed out.
	- flexible GUI/IDE is mostly complete and usable
	- Raluca's automatic similarity functions
	- asynchronous logging
	- Extension API to allow plugins and mods to be created with minimal
	familarity with the code

What doesn't exist, yet:
	- 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 (and probably never will)
	- Production compilation
	- RPM-Manual, aural, speech

Road to Beta:
	- Test, test, test. It will be fully compatible* with 5.0
	  before the 1.0 release
	- Production Compilation
	- RPM must be completed (given 5.0's reliance upon it)
	- EMMA
	- Finalize extension API
	- Lisp-based ACT-R model import/export
	- Documentation
	- More tools for the GUI (CPM-GOMS trace, etc)

Road to 1.0:
	- Scripting support
	- Finalize external interface API
	- standalone GUI so that it can be used by all ACT-R users


Value added?
  I've been asked many times now, why? The easiest answer is this: options;
strength through diversity. Engineers reluctant to use Lisp? Need to
interface web browsers? Need to be able to handle arbitrary GUIs? A few
things that the Java version can do quite easily:

	- All Java GUIs (using Swing, partially true for AWT) are fully
	  inspectable. This allows models to be aware of interfaces without
	  modifying any code in the model or (more importantly) the
application.
	  ACT-R models will be able to interact with commercial Java software
	  without ever touching the code
	- A similar setup exists for the standardized Java3D environment.
	- Object oriented design allows for smaller implementations that are
	  easier to modify and maintain.
	- Multithreaded support throughout.
	- Single code base : no platform specific code.
	- Easier integration with existing and developing technologies.
	- No reliance on commercial development tools


Guesstimated release dates:
	Beta : Mid Oct
	1.0  : Shortly after Lisp reference implementation is finalized or
	       Mid-Jan which ever comes last.


Where to get it:
	Web Page:	http://jactr.sf.net/
	Source  :	http://sourceforge.net/projects/jactr/
	CVS     :	cvs.jactr.sourceforge.net

How to help:
	If you know ACT-R (as a theory, or even better, the Lisp code), and
are familiar with the basics of Java you can help. The website has a list
of things that need to be done still, take a pick, bounce me a line, and
I'll set you up to extract from & commit to the CVS repository.


-Anthony Harrison
(soon to be at U.Pitt)


* 'fully compatible' is actually not possible as Lisp and Java rely on two
different math library implementations and I use double precision floats
for all computations. So, by 'fully' I mean that activations of 1.039 and
1.041 will be considered equivalent. The equations will be the same, there
will just be minor differences in the values.
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| Anthony Harrison, Graduate Research Assistant
| Human Factors & Applied Cognition
| Department of Psychology
|
| George Mason University
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