More results of testing 7.1.0-alpha1

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1

In the release notes of this preview version, I saw quite some issues addressed that I am interested in.
Therefore, I tested a selection of points from the release notes. (This is an arbitrary selection, no structured test…)
Here are my findings:

  • Modules: see separate posts
  • Improved Code tab: works
  • Improved Info tab, LaTeX: the most useful application I had in mind is formulas; I tried $n$, but it did not show as a LaTeX formula; there is no other documentation yet
  • The automatic models update service: it works fine for models from NetLogo 5.0 and later, but not for earlier versions (I still have a bunch of 4.1 models around, and conversion then needs 5.x)
  • BehaviorSpace improvements, including error messages: it all works nicely (thanks!), except for one glitch when I allocated 8MB of memory (for 1MB it said it needed more)
  • static HTML files: yes! (needs some more updates to 7.1 though; e.g. no documentation on new BehaviorSpace options yet)
  • Copying text from Monitor widgets: nice!
  • Command Center improvements: mostly work, but recalling multi-line inputs should at least show a space for any newline
  • Improved command-line interface: no documentation found
  • Models Library dialog: nice!
  • about .nls files: when renaming to an invalid filename through the interface, I got an error message, but changing the name inside the __includes clause was accepted; I could even open the “invalid” file in the editor
  • reporting an error from the “internal error” dialog: it hangs when there is no Internet connection
  • check on names of globals: nice!
  • Auto-converter within NetLogo Desktop: it looks like this is not “within”; most points are pre-6.0 and then it refers to the external model-converter service; pre-5.0 it still breaks on an unsupported file-format (like 6.x did)

So, mostly good, with some small issues. If I find larger issues, I will report them separately.
Nice job!

2

Hi Mark,

Thank you for the extensive comments. The documentation for the next release is now updated with the missing items you mentioned. Regarding the other issues you raised:

  • Info tab LaTeX: $n$ works for me. Could you send an example model where it doesn’t work for you?
  • Auto-converter service: Unfortunately, there are some technical issues preventing us from supporting older versions of NetLogo in the automated environment, so in some cases you’ll need to do the first step manually. But there are quite a few bugs in older versions of NetLogo, so there’s a chance that your conversion just failed due to one of these bugs. If you send a more specific bug report elsewhere, we can take a look and see if it’s a solvable problem.
  • BehaviorSpace memory: You most definitely need more than 8MB. At least for me, just opening the app without even opening a model uses around 500MB. To prevent issues with platform differences we haven’t set a hard minimum, but something above 500MB is most likely required in all cases. I’ll make sure this is made clear in the BehaviorSpace documentation, and maybe in the dialog itself as well.
  • Command Center multi-line: I don’t have any issues with this on my end, pressing up arrow or selecting an item from the history dropdown does preserve the newlines. Could you send a screenshot or a more specific example of where it didn’t work for you?
  • .nls file names: What exactly was the “invalid” file name you used? If I do something like __includes [ “Untitled.nlogox” ], it throws an error, even if that model file exists in the same directory.
  • Error dialog: Good catch, it no longer hangs if there is no internet connection.
  • Desktop auto-converter: The reason for creating the separate auto-converter service was exactly this; it’s not feasible to support the loading of really old models in the latest version.

Isaac B.