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HowToAssembleAMain.md

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How to Assemble a Main

Once you have your Agents, World, and Interface picked out, it's easy to assemble them into an main() function that you can turn into a working executable.

Create the appropriate .cpp file, and follow these steps:

  1. Include all of the modules that you will be using. In the case of simple_main.cpp this looks like:
#include "Agents/PacingAgent.hpp"
#include "Interfaces/TrashInterface.hpp"
#include "Worlds/MazeWorld.hpp"
  1. Inside your main() function, start by building your world. It should look something like:
main() {
  cse491::MazeWorld world;

Some world types may be able to take arguments to their constructors, but most probably won't.

  1. Add in your agents using the AddAgent member function, specifying the type of agent with a template argument and the agent's name as a regular argument. AddAgent will return a reference to the new agent, so you can immediately modify it, such as by setting its position.
  world.AddAgent<cse491::PacingAgent>("Pacer 1").SetPosition(3,1);
  world.AddAgent<cse491::PacingAgent>("Pacer 2").SetPosition(6,1);

Furthermore, AddAgent can take additional parameters to set properties BEFORE configuration is run. For example, if you want to set stats for strength and speed, you could do something like:

  world.AddAgent<cse491::PacingAgent>("Pacer 1", "strength", 1.0, "speed", 5.5).SetPosition(3,1);
  world.AddAgent<cse491::PacingAgent>("Pacer 2", "strength", 8.6, "speed", 1.2).SetPosition(6,1);

This will allow you to change what you do in agent configuration based on the properties provided.

  1. Add in your interface as a type of agent. For example:
  world.AddAgent<cse491::TrashInterface>("Interface").SetProperty("char", '@');

This will set up any "player" characters.

  1. Launch the run using world.Run();.

What if I want to collect extra data for analysis?

If you want to track the agents and the world during a run, you will skip step 5 above and instead manually run the agents and update the world, collecting data as you go.

For example, in place of world.Run(); you could have:

  while (!world.GetRunOver()) {
    world.RunAgents();
    world.UpdateWorld();
    // Collect extra data about the world here!
  }

You should have access to all of the basic data in the world; we may need to expand the API to provide access if you don't have everything you need.

Compiling a main

By default, any .cpp files in /source/ (not in subdirectories) should be automatically detected and compiled with CMake (see HowToCompile.md).

If your main requires other source files (i.e., other .cpp files), you will also need to make a .cmake file. For example, example.cpp would need a example.cmake file.

This .cmake file will give you fine-grained control over the compilation process of your main file. To add extra source files, simply add new lines like so:

add_source_to_target(${EXE_NAME} "source/Agents/PathAgent.cpp")

The ${EXE_NAME} argument should NOT change, as it is a variable from the other CMake infrastructure. You will, however, need to update the other argument, which a string to the other source file you want to compile and link against. You will need one copy of this line for each source file you need to include.