alhazen 1.3.4

A simple framework to facilitate running experiments, written in Python, using cognitive models, or similar applications, in multiple, parallel processes

Alhazen is a small, simple framework to facilitate running experiments, written in Python, using cognitive models, or similar applications, in multiple, parallel processes. It is only useful on multi-core machines, though most modern machines are such; the more cores, the more performance benefit you are likely to get by using it. It also depends upon the experiment being structured as a large number of identical, independent runs of the same activity, or of similar activities. This is a common pattern, each such run usually corresponding to a distinct virtual participant, or possibly a collection of interacting participants.

There is online documentation of Alhazen, and the sources are on Bitbucket.

Alhazen requires Python version 3.7 or later. Recent versions of Mac OS X and recent Linux distributions are likely to have a suitable version of Python pre-installed, but it may need to be invoked as python3 instead of just python, which latter often runs a 2.x version of Python instead. Use of a virtual environment, which is recommended, often obviates the need for the python3/python distinction. If it is not already installed, Python, for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, or other Unices, can be downloaded from python.org <http://www.python.org/download/>_, for free.

Normally, assuming you are connected to the internet, to install Alhazen you should simply have to type at the command line

pip install alhazen

Depending upon various possible variations in how Python and your machine are configured you may have to modify the above in various ways

• you may need to ensure your virtual environment is activated

• you may need use an alternative scheme your Python IDE supports

• you may need to call it pip3 instead of simply pip

• you may need to precede the call to pip by sudo

• you may need to use some combination of the above

If you are unable to install Alhazen as above, you can instead download a tarball <https://bitbucket.org/dfmorrison/alhazen/downloads/?tab=tags>_. The tarball will have a filename something like alhazen-1.3.4.tar.gz. Assuming this file is at /some/directory/alhazen-1.3.4.tar.gz install it by typing at the command line

pip install /some/directory/alhazen-1.3.4.tar.gz

Alternatively you can untar the tarball with

tar -xf /some/directory/alhazen-1.3.4.tar.gz

and then change to the resulting directory and type

python setup.py install

Alhazen is released under the following MIT style license:

Copyright (c) 2020-2022 Carnegie Mellon University

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.