$poplocal/local/sim/README

README file for the SIM_AGENT package         Aaron Sloman - Dec 18 1994

Last: updated 11 Jan 1998
Aaron Sloman, ( http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/ )
School of Computer Science, The University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
EMAIL   A.Sloman@cs.bham.ac.uk
Phone: +44-121-414-4775 (Sec 3711)       Fax:   +44-121-414-4281

This package is freely available to anyone who has a version of Poplog
which supports the current sim_agent facilities (i.e. Poplog version
15.0 or later).

If you obtain it, and especially if you use it, I would be very grateful
if you could send comments and suggestions, or at least a note that you
have it, to A.Sloman@cs.bham.ac.uk

If the package is used for research or development, please acknowledge
use of the Birmingham University SIM_AGENT toolkit.

=======================================================================

WARNING: the programs here are still under development and likely
to change.

See sim/help/sim_agent_news
    ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/sim/help/sim_agent_news
    ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/prb/help/prb_news


The simulation package sim_agent normally resides in

    $poplocal/local/sim/

         CONTENTS

 -- PRECONDITIONS
 -- CONTENTS OF THIS PACKAGE
 -- LOADING THE SIM_AGENT LIBRARY
 -- What to read

-- PRECONDITIONS

To use the SIM_AGENT toolkit you need to be fairly fluent in Pop-11.
This is not a toy system for beginners. For more on Pop-11 see

    ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/README
    ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/poplog.info.html
    http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/adrianh/pop11.html
    http://www.cvg.cs.reading.ac.uk/poplog
    http://www.isl.co.uk/
    http://www.isl.co.uk/pop11int.html

and the many code and documentation files in
    ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/

including the Pop-11 primer (for experienced programmers)
    ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/primer/START.html


1. Objectclass

This package requires Poplog Version 15.0 or later.

The package uses the objectclass library, located at present (i.e.
Poplog Version 15.0) in:

    $usepop/pop/lib/proto/objectclass/

with the main startup file in

    $usepop/pop/lib/proto/objectclass/objectclass.p

I suggest that until this is in the system a link to it should be
provided in the local library, thus

    ln -s $usepop/pop/lib/proto/objectclass/objectclass.p $poplocal/local/lib

In Poplog version 15.5 the location is changed to
    $usepop/pop/lib/objectclass
and lib and help files are provided in standard locations.


2. Poprulebase

The package also uses the poprulebase library. This is normally resident
in $poplocal/local/prb/ to which it is convenient to add links from
other local libraries, as specified in the install_prb script. It can be
fetched from
    ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/
e.g. as a compressed tar file
    ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/prbtar.gz

-- CONTENTS OF THIS PACKAGE

    sim/README
        This file

    sim/auto/
        Directory containing autoloadable files

    sim/demo/
        Directory containin demonstrations. Expected to grow
        sim/demo/rib
            The robot in a box demo prepared by Riccardo Poli and
            Aaron Sloman to illustrate a subsumption architecture

    sim/doc/
        Printable postscript papers

    sim/help/
        Directory containing help files especially
            sim/help/sim_agent_news

    sim/install_sim
        Shell script to install links to local libraries and build
        indexes

    sim/lib/
        Directory containing files to be loaded via "lib" or "uses"

    sim/mksim
        Shell script to build a saved image with the library
        precompiled.

    sim/mktarfile
        Shell script to build tar file

    sim/ref/
        Directory for REF files, when available.

    sim/simlib.p
        Pop-11 program to set up extensions to the Poplog search lists
        for autoloadable, library, and documentation files. Loading this
        does not load the full package: it merely makes the directories
        browsable.

    sim/teach/
        Directory containing teach files

    sim/test/
        Directory containing test files. Can probably be removed.


-- LOADING THE SIM_AGENT LIBRARY

If a link has been set up in $poplocal/local/lib to simlib.p then
these commands will work.
    lib sim_agent
or
    uses sim_agent

Otherwise try
    load $poplocal/local/sim/simlib.p
or
    load <dir>/simlib.p

where <dir> is where this directory is located.

The above commands should compile simlib.p, which extends the search
lists for HELP, TEACH, LIB, USES, etc.

Then do
    lib sim_agent

This will load objectclass and poprulebase and the main sim_agent
procedures. Some of the autoloadable extensions included in sim/auto/
may not be loaded by this, to save initial compilation time.

The script sim/mksim can create a saved image to save compilation time.

-- What to read

After compiling simlib.p try

    TEACH SIM_AGENT
    HELP SIM_AGENT
    TEACH SIM_DEMO