[ACT-R-users] New ACT-R software release available

[db30 at andrew.cmu.edu]

A new version of the ACT-R 7 software is now available from the ACT-R
website: <http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/software/>.  The current version
is now 7.0.8-<2015:2016-06-01>.

A few of the significant changes will be noted here, and you can
check the commit log at <http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/log/actr6log.txt>
for information on all of the other changes.

There are now major and minor version numbers associated with the
software instead of just relying on the repository version numbering.
Details on when the version numbers are changed can be found in the
reference manual.

A new parameter for productions is available through spp called
:fixed-utility.  If that parameter is set to t for a production then
the utility of that production will not be changed by the utility
learning mechanism, but it can still be changed explicitly using spp.

In order to make using the extras easier the command require-extra has
been added.  It takes one parameter which is a string that names the
directory in /extras that contains an extension that should be loaded.
If that extra has not been previously loaded then it will compile and
load it e.g. (require-extra "blending").  The intended use of this is
to put it into any model file that uses an extra so that other people
can load and run that model without having to first load any other
files necessary.

Reworked how the "history" tools in the Environment operate.  Instead
of each being an independent tool which set its own trace flag(s) and
may or may not have had a save option, now there are only two buttons
on the Control Panel.  One opens a recorder which lets one pick which
trace information and buffers to save the data from in the current
model, and it has a button which will save all of the currently
recorded information from a model run to a file.  The other button
opens a playback window which contains buttons for all of the
available history viewing tools, and it allows one to pick either the
current model or a saved data file to use as the source of the
information.


If you have any questions or problems with the new version please let
me know.

Dan