Re: Swarm and GIS libraries

[Matthew Aylward EG201 G219 SL CKR]

Alex,
Your survey is remarkably opportune for me. I am brand-new to swarm but
VERY excited about it. I have downloaded it and I am in the process of
reading the associated docs. I will be installing it at home first on
S.u.S.E. Linux 5.1, then later on solaris at work where we run Arc/Info
and ERMapper mostly.
I am a GIS user (Arc/Info) and Botanist. I am planning a small pilot
project for the first half of 1998 which will (hopefully) involve the
simulation, on a VERY simple initial scale, of the spread and
interaction of two seagrass species on shellsand banks here in Western
Australia. We have a lot of good GIS and Botanical data covering a 30
year period. The hope was to start with the distribution of 2 species in
1972, model the spread, run it and then see how the result compares to
reality. Then of course the refinement cycles. then on to a larger
project I hope.
My GIS experience is good and I am a devoted Linux user, but our
combined modeling experience is VERY thin. The discovery of swarm and
the associated community looks like a huge boost to me, I hope I am
correct.
I have passed your survey onto all involved (and other GIS users here)
and we will formulate a useful reply. I am currently formulating the
research proposal so this is good timing.
Initially I think (off the top of my head) the most useful function
would be to output Arc/Info GRIDs which are simply a regular 2d matrix
of x,y cell locations (like pixels) with an associated z value for each
cell. A model which could spit one of these out for each "year" or such
would be very useful.

I hope my excited rambling is of some use to you. 
Thanks for the your efforts.
Regards,
Matt Aylward

Alex Lancaster wrote:
> 
> To the extended Hive,