RE: UrbanSim 3 vs. 4

Dear UrbanSim users,

The email of the last few days has made it clear that getting a working
example database for UrbanSim 4 is high priority for our users. Thus,
we have accelerated our effort to finish converting the
Springfield-Eugene database to work with UrbanSim 4. The current status
and notes related to this are visible on our external wiki:
http://www.urbansim.org/wiki/external/index.php/Eugene_Database.

We will send out an annoucement once this conversion is done.

David

> -----Original Message-----
> From: users-bounces_at_urbansim.org
> [mailto:users-bounces_at_urbansim.org] On Behalf Of Aaran Stent
> Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 7:59 PM
> To: 'Paul Waddell'
> Cc: 'users_at_urbansim.org'
> Subject: RE: UrbanSim 3 vs. 4
>
> Paul,
>
> The reason we are planning to use our own SVN is because we
> don't have access to the public SVN server. I have
> developers updating code/databases in UrbanSim 4 on a daily
> basis, hence we need to integrate those changes with the
> official release and/or nightly build available as a tar ball.
>
> We started with the June 30th Pre Release, we then moved to
> the significantly different September 29 nightly build that
> fixed the Bug for Lag Variables not being recorded and are
> now on to the October 24th Build with the changed Employment
> location model.
>
> I fully appreciate that UrbanSim is an in development Open
> Source project but I need to get a running system up and
> going by mid November at the latest. My team is still
> struggling to get a sample base year with the models running.
>
> My current plan is to get our SVN server to grab the nightly
> tar ball and update our SVN copy. We can then monitor and
> merge the changes from both our developers (currently 2, soon
> to be 4) and the UrbanSim developers. As I understand it a
> lot of changes are requiring SQL changes and changes to
> records (I will look at managing this through the SVN server as well).
> We can then send our changes as a patch back to you via email
> or to the commons website.
>
> Our intention is not to start our own branch we are just
> trying to find a workable and timely solution for our project. :-)
>
> Aaran Stent
> National Economics
> aaran.stent_at_nieir.com.au <mailto:aaran.stent_at_nieir.com.au>
> 416 Queens Parade
> Clifton Hill VIC 3068
> Ph: 0419 227 262
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: users-bounces_at_urbansim.org [mailto:users-bounces_at_urbansim.org]On
> Behalf Of Paul Waddell
> Sent: Monday, 30 October 2006 11:12 AM
> To: Aaran Stent
> Cc: 'users_at_urbansim.org'
> Subject: Re: UrbanSim 3 vs. 4
>
>
> I appreciate that new users of a system like to be able to download a
> sample application and run it 'out of the box'. We are now
> working on
> updating the Eugene application we provided with UrbanSim 3
> so that new
> users will have this same capacity to experiment with a running
> application quickly after installing the system. We will send an
> announcement to the list as soon as this is available, and
> will post it
> in the News section on the web. Our efforts have been
> focused on making
> UrbanSim 4 and OPUS a more robust and flexible system than we felt we
> could do in the previous implementation, and I think we have
> made some
> very significant advances. But we need to finish up the task
> of making
> the system more accessible to new users, and will do so.
>
> At the same time, we strongly encourage new users to start with the
> UrbanSim 4 platform, and encourage both new and existing users to be
> helpful in the process of refining the documentation and code by
> pointing things out to the development team that need fixing,
> or better
> yet, sending a correction or a patch. Help is always
> welcome, and the
> most effective way to do this is to submit any suggested changes to
> documentation or code to the development team for integration
> into the
> release system, rather than offering separate patches or branches.
>
> Paul
>
> Aaran Stent wrote:
> > Hi Jen,
> >
> > I think you have summarised the problem very well. Opus
> and UrbanSim 4 provide a great set of new features and will
> offer ongoing support. However the biggest issue with
> UrbanSim 4 is that it simply will not work out of the box
> like UrbanSim 3.
> >
> > I have had two developers working on UrbanSim 4 for several
> weeks now and they are yet to get the test database and all
> of the models in working order. When I first looked at
> UrbanSim in Feb 2006 I was able to have a running simulation
> that I could then experiment with in a single day.
> >
> > My developers have stated there are a lot of hard coded
> references to the University server causing a lot of things
> to break. There are also numerous differences in what the
> documentation states versus the source code. The team is
> stepping through correcting a lot of code instead of working
> on models and scenarios. We are planning to share our
> changes via our SVN server once we have a working model running.
> >
> > The Java version is your best option in my honest opinion.
> It provides a working system in just a few hours. UrbanSim 4
> will not.
> >
> > PS. I don't mean to come down hard on UrbanSim 4 as it is
> such a huge step forward from version 3, it simply isn't
> ready for widespread use like UrbanSim 3 is.
> >
> > Aaran Stent
> > National Economics
> > aaran.stent_at_nieir.com.au <mailto:aaran.stent_at_nieir.com.au>
> > 416 Queens Parade
> > Clifton Hill VIC 3068
> > Ph: 0419 227 262
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: users-bounces_at_urbansim.org
> [mailto:users-bounces_at_urbansim.org]On
> > Behalf Of Jennifer C. Duthie
> > Sent: Saturday, 28 October 2006 1:44 AM
> > To: users_at_urbansim.org
> > Subject: UrbanSim 3 vs. 4
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm working on a research project for TxDOT looking at what
> type of land
> > use model is best for each type of region (defined by size,
> resources,
> > need, ...) depending on a variety of factors. I had been
> trying to get
> > UrbanSim 4 running for awhile and was having some of the
> same problems
> > as Zachary, so I just this week switched to UrbanSim 3.
> > Although there are many advantages to UrbanSim 4 (as listed
> > http://www.urbansim.org/news/index.shtml#opus), we're
> worried that there
> > are still some bugs in the code and the documentation has
> not yet been
> > ironed out. Also, it is very helpful to have the Eugene
> test database
> > running for the earlier version. As we're looking for general
> > conclusions about types of models, we feel this should
> suffice. My only
> > concern is that the Java version is no longer being
> maintained, so if we
> > do have a problem it may be more difficult to get it resolved.
> >
> > I just wanted to see if anyone on this list had any
> convincing arguments
> > as to why we shouldn't use the Java version for our research...
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Jen Duthie
> > PhD Candidate
> > Transportation Engineering
> > University of Texas, Austin
> > _______________________________________________
> > Users mailing list
> > Users_at_urbansim.org
> > http://www.urbansim.org/mailman/listinfo/users
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
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Received on Tue Oct 31 2006 - 12:32:24 PST