Notes:
This version contains major new features including:
* An interactive client that lets a user guide a robot through a grid-world
* Gifs rather than pngs for graphical world representation to avoid dependance in the imlib2 library. The commercial restrictions on gifs are now history it seems.
This change introduces a dependence on tcl/tk, but a tcl/tk interface comes as standard with Ruby and tcl/tk is readily
available for both Linux and Windows.
* A number of command line options for different output levels and simulation modes.
* A new world interpretation mode which allows 'thin' walls, i.e., walls between grid squares.
Thin walls is common in RL problems, e.g., in Dietterich's Taxi world.
This new mode is called 'walled' and is specified in the world file.
The traditional mode is called 'occuption' mode and is the default.
* World files are now in xml format, allowing automated world file parsing using the standard Ruby xml parser, REXML.
* 3d worlds where each level is represented by a traditional 2d image.
3d world are also common in RL problems, e.g., Hengst's 10 story building.
The server always runs in 3d mode by default, but the default client library rubyrumpus hides the extra details, providing backward compatibility for existing clients.
A new client library, rubyrumpus3d, provides developers with full access to the new state and command structure through
methods such as up!.
* Restart and server-shutdown commands that give clients more control over the server.
This is a 'quick and dirty' release as I now have a student helping me in my work(!), hence the alpha state.
Changes:
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