nest-1.9.x-release_notes.md

Release notes for NEST 1.9.x

Version 1.9.8718 (2010-06-09)

• The SLI scanner now correctly handles DOS encoded files (trac #431)
• Frozen nodes now can handle incoming spikes correctly (SVN r8664)
• NEST now compiles with the Portland Group Compiler (SVN r8654)
• Added multimeter support to the models iaf_psc_alpha, hh_cond_exp_traub, aeif_cond_exp, iaf_cond_exp_sfa_rr, iaf_cond_exp, iaf_psc_exp, and aeif_cond_alpha (SVN r8607, SVN r8653)
• SLI now has a mathexecutive mode for infix notation (SVN r8644)
• Fixed bootstrap of example MyModule (SVN r8642)
• Fixed misleading use of t_spike in ht_neuron (SVN r8638)
• Fixed dependency tracking in Makefiles (SVN r8618)
• Removed support for IDL (trac #322, SVN r8617)
• spike_detector now also can record weights (SVN r8614)
• Improved spike_generator: spike_weights now allows sending weighted spikes (SVN r8612, SVN r8613)
• Progress report now includes the realtime factor of the simulation and actually runs from 0 to 100% (trac #391, SVNr8608)
• Testsuite now uses a temporary directory to store results (trac #347, SVN r8604)
• data_path and data_prefix can now be set via the environment variables NEST_DATA_PATH and NEST_DATA_DIR (SVN r8602)
• ModelModule is now called ModelsModule (SVN r8588)
• Topology is now a SLIModule and loaded by default (SVN r8584)
• Support for infix pure functions in SLI (SVN r8568)
• Build improvements for BlueGene/P (SVN r8563)

Version 1.9.8558 (2010-01-05)

• PyNEST now correctly loads on MacOS Snow Leopard (SVN r8556)
• Portability improvements for MacOS 10.4 (SVN r8541)
• Configure now supports --without-gsl and --with-gsl-prefix is --with-gsl now (trac #270, trac #387)
• ResetKernel now correctly regenerates the modeldict (trac #333)
• SLI: CreateMany is now gone and Creat has additional arguments for number and parameters of the new nodes (trac #369)
• Improved error handling in iaf_cond_alpha_mc (trac #385)
• Loading modules now works more reliably (trac #366, trac #367)
• PyNEST: voltage_trace and raster_plot now work with current versions of Matplotlib (trac #372)

Version 1.9.8498 (2009-11-16)

• New model: mat2_psc_exp based on Kobayashi et al. (2009) Front. Comput. Neurosci. 3:9. (http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/neuro.10.009.2009)
• Fix Python symbol lookup error when using OpenMPI (SVN r8491)
• New model: iaf_tum_2000, which is the same as the old iaf_psc_exp and still has two refractory times (SVN r8480)
• Removed second refractory time from iaf_psc_exp (SVN r8480)
• Fixed memory leak caused by opendir (SVN r8470)
• Topology: added functions for plotting connections (SVN r8461)
• Model documentation now explains what types of events neurons and devices can send/receive and synapses can transmit (SVN r8444)
• Removed CPEX from the communicator to improve performance and scaling when using OpenMPI over Infiniband (SVN r8442)
• PyNEST: new function sli_func() for easier wrapping of SLI (trac #370)
• Testscripts can now also be written in Python in addition to SLI
• New workflow for connection management (SVN r8411, see the documentation at Connection_Management)
• pulse_packet_generator draws a new spike volley for each target and supports overlapping pulse packets (trac #244, trac #359)

Version 1.9.8401-2 (Bug fix release, 2009-09-10)

• Fixed a build error in MyModule example

Version 1.9.8401-1 (Bug fix release, 2009-09-07)

• Install the PyNEST component of the topology

Version 1.9.8401 (2009-08-24)

• PyNEST now handles numpy integer types equally (SVN r8390)
• Information on the helpdesk is now advertised more prominently
• The PyNEST component of the topology now is a submodule of PyNEST. Use import nest.topology to use it. (SVN r8352)
• Support for MPI-parallel testscripts in the testsuite
• New commandline switch -c to execute SLI code directly (trac #353)
• LambertW function replaces the fudge factor in the examples (SVN r8336)
• XDR support is now disabled (SVN r8328)
• Configure now supports --without-pthread (SVN r8322)
• Fixed some errors in the brunel-delta-nest.py example (trac #344)

Version 1.9.8316 (2009-06-19)

• The topology manuals are now also installed (SVN r8309)
• Improved our build system to work better with all versions of libtool
• Fixed PyNEST example brunel-delta-nest.py (SVN r8313)
• New SLI command test to run the testsuite from within NEST (SVN r8305)

Version 1.9.8300 (2009-06-11)

• Added information on the helpdesk to READMEs and help page (trac #331)
• PyNEST: convert Numpy array scalars properly to SLI datums

Version 1.9.8291 (2009-06-10)

• Use the included libtool and libltdl versions in all cases
• Fixed PyNEST to install properly under Python 2.6

Version 1.9.8276 (2009-06-05)

• Fixed build environment to work reliably with all versions of libtool

Version 1.9.8257 (2009-05-28)

• New model: parrot_neuron_ps for precise spike times (SVN r8242)
• Some minor build fixes if $DESTDIR is set (SVN r8249)
• PyNEST now catches conversion errors from NumPy (SVN r8248)
• hh_cond_exp_traub now reports correct conductances (SVN r8253)
• To disable PyNEST, use --without-python instead of --disable-pynest

Version 1.9.8236 (2009-04-23)

• iaf_psc_alpha_canon now accepts connections from dc_generator (trac #326)
• Fixed some examples (SVN r8148, SVN r8150, SVN r8153)
• Fixed bug calculating wrong nu_th in brunel-alpha scripts (SVN r8159)
• Fixed a bug in the PyNEST error handler (SVN r8163)
• make installcheck now also runs the PyNEST testsuite (SVN r8169, SVN r8173)
• PyNEST can now be initialized with --quiet (SVN r8176, SVN r8177)
• PyNEST: voltage_trace now can reconstruct times from the data (SVN r8202)
• New SLI function SyncProcesses to do exactly that (SVN r8203, SVN r8206)
• New models: Multicompartmental IAF neuron iaf_cond_alpha_mc (SVN r8207) and multimeter to record multiple quantities from neurons (SVN r8219)
• New test scripts for RNGs and distributed simulations

Version 1.9.8128 (2009-03-13)

• The build problems of 1.9.8120 are fixed (SVN r8127)

Version 1.9.8120 (2009-03-11)

''THIS VERSION WAS RETRACTED DUE TO BUILD PROBLEMS. USE 1.9.8128 INSTEAD''

• Improved unit tests and three new test scripts (SVN r8093)
• Automatic installation of testscripts from modules (SVN r8098)
• New SLI functions: asin, acos (SVN r8087), Function (SVN r8100)
• Building on BlueGene/L now also uses regexp.h (trac #272)
• PyNEST: SetStatus now handles dict and string arguments correctly (SVN r8095)
• PyNEST: We now also understand array selections like a[:,1] (SVN r8110)
• The SLI function Sort now also works on array of integers (SVN r8117)
• RandomDivergentConnect now has weight and delay arguments as has been documented for quite some time (SVN r8118)

Version 1.9.8075 (2009-02-19)

• Membrane potential may now be initialized to arbitrary values (SVN r8050, trac #310)
• GNU Scientific Library v 1.11 or later recommended, required for aeif_cond_alpha (SVN r8046, trac #311)
• PyNEST: Error reporting now really works (trac #309)
• New model: hh_cond_exp_traub (SVN r8029)
• GetConnections now returns the complete connectivity of a node, regardless of its thread and process (SVN r8030, SVN r8036)
• User documentation is now world-readable after installation (trac #318)

Version 1.9.8017 (2009-02-03)

• GetConnections now returns connectivity data from all processes (trac #305)
• New SLI commands CompileMath and ExecuteMath to allow standard infix notation of math expressions (SVN r7937)
• New SLI command Inline to optimize procedures before execution (SVN r7947)
• Fixed a memory leak in Tokens assignment operator. Especially with repeated simulation runs this has been disastrous (SVNr7966)
• Tmpnam warning at end of compilation is gone (SVN r7976)
• Precise models now have an example script (SVN r7981)
• PyNEST: voltage_trace and raster_plot now support a timeunit (SVN r8005)
• PyNEST: Added the functions help and helpdesk (SVN r8011)
• Fixed usage of GSL solvers in all models (SVN r7995)
• Topology now loaded automatically (SVN r7928)

Version 1.9.7926 (2009-01-14)

• PyNEST: Error reporting now works more reliably (SVN r7902, SVN r7903)
• PyNEST: Linking on MacOS X now works again (trac #301)

Version 1.9.7905 (2008-12-18)

• Added topology library back to the trunk (SVN r7863). For details see Topological_Connections
• Added aeif_w_meter and corresponding infrastructure (trac #295)
• PyNEST: SetStatus now supports any iterable (SVN r7879)
• Model and synapse documentation now contains information about the suported events (r7889, r7893)

Version 1.9.7857 (2008-11-27)

• Initial public release of NEST 2.0 beta
• Major changes since NEST 1.0.13:
  • Support for parallel and distributed simulations using threads and MPI
  • Much more flexible synapse system that allows dynamic synapses
  • A new user interface via the Python programming language (PyNEST)
  • Significant performance and scaling improvements
  • Tons of bugs fixed