Kurt suggested that Tom present a time line for Tierra development. Tom presented a only a little in response, and fleshed it out a bit for this report:
Release of Tierra V4.3 incorporating the many innovations introduced by Joseph, and the latest code from all the developers.
Jeremy and Tom cooperate in writing the first network ancestor. Note: Due to visa problems, Jeremy's arrival in Japan has been delayed, so Tom will attempt to meet this goal alone, but some delay can be expected.
Tsukasa and Will cooperate in creating an API for Beagle, the new Tierra frontend.
Artificial Life V conference in Nara, Japan, May 16-18.
http://www.hip.atr.co.jp/departments/Dept6/ALife5.html/
Jeremy Bruestle and Joseph Hart arrive in Japan to begin working full-time on the network Tierra project.
Tests of evolution in a 100+ CPU global network environment begin.
All other developers are invited to design network ancestors. This should be done ``blind'', without looking at the network ancestors designed by others, in order to assure a maximum diversity of design.
The developers begin implementing the new Beagle on their respective platforms, with native GUI tools.
Attempts to recruit more CPUs for the network experiment begin, but this recruitment will be restricted to those sites that agree to provide accounts to the Tierra development team. This restriction is necessary because frequent re-installation is anticipated during the first year of network testing and development.
Efforts begin to move the tools of the old DOS Beagle to the new network Beagle.
Development begins of new observational tools in response to new observational needs emerging from the network experiments.
It is expected that the network version of Tierra will be tested for as much as a year before it is released to the public. This might mean a public release in April 1997.