Readme File for the
Trade Network Game Laboratory (Version 2000b)
- Last Updated: 26 January 2024
- Site Maintained By:
-
Leigh Tesfatsion
- Professor Emerita of Economics
- Courtesy Research Professor of
- Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Heady Hall 260
- Iowa State University
- Ames, Iowa 50011-1054
- http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/
-
tesfatsi AT iastate.edu
-
TNGLab Home Page
-
TNGLab Program -- Version 2000b (Zip,2.6MB)
- The Trade Network Game Lab (TNGLab) is a computational laboratory for
the investigation of evolutionary trade network formation among
strategically interacting buyers, sellers, and dealers.
- The TNGLab is targeted for the Microsoft Windows desktop. The TNGLab has a
clear, easily operated graphical user interface. It permits
visualization of the formation and evolution of trade networks by
means of real-time animations. Data tables and charts reporting
descriptive performance statistics are also provided in real time.
-
A "manual" for the TNGLab which presents, motivates, and illustrates its use is available, as follows:
- David McFadzean, Deron Stewart, and Leigh Tesfatsion,
"A Computational Laboratory for Evolutionary Trade Networks"
(pdf,508KB,
IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary
Computation, Vol. 5, No. 5, October 2001, pp. 546-560.
The published article is also available at
IEEE Xplore.
- Version 2000b of the TNGLab has been released as freeware by David
McFadzean, Deron Stewart, and Leigh Tesfatsion (the copyright
holders) under the terms of the Artistic License Agreement online
here.
An automatic installation program for the TNGLab (Version 2000b) is
available online as a zip file
here (zip,2.6MB).
Unzipping this zip file will produce four files in addition to this readme
file:
- Setup.lst
- setup.exe
- wintng1.cab
- wintng2.cab
- Execution of setup.exe will install the TNGLab in a directory of
the user's choice. The installation will create three files:
- wintng.exe
- default.tng
- St6unst.log
-
Execution of wintng.exe will start the TNGLab, which opens in the
Setting Screen. When the TNGLab is run, real-time data is
generated and displayed in a variety of formats: in tabular
numerical form on the Results Screen; in the form of charts on the
Charts Screen; and in the form of a network animation on the
Animation Screen. The physics of the animation can be customized to
the application at hand by means of parameter settings available on
the Physics Screen. These five screens can be accessed at any time
by means of labelled buttons appearing on each separate screen.
-
In addition, when the TNGLab is run, detailed output data is read
into a tng.out file in the same directory in which wintng.exe
resides.
-
Configuration files for the TNGLab must end in the extension tng.
Default.tng is the default configuration file for the TNGLab. The
user can enter and run different parameter settings from the TNGLab
Settings Screen. The "Save As" option on the TNGLab menu bar can
be used to save parameter settings to customized configuration files
for later use as long as these files end in the extension tng.
These configuration files can be opened and read into the Settings
Screen by using the "Open" option on the TNGLab menu bar.
-
The "Print" option on the TNGLab menu bar is not
functional. Moreover, for better clarity, the Chart Screen only
displays fitness (profit) levels ranging from -1.00 to 4.00. Consequently,
to use the Chart Screen, payoffs for trade interactions should be scaled so
that the average fitness levels of the buyers, sellers, and dealers lie in
this range.
-
The file St6unst.log contains a detailed log of all working files
installed on the user's computer during the installation of the TNG
Lab. This log file can be used to uninstall the TNGLab by hand if
an automatic "uninstall program" option is not available on the
user's computer.
Copyright © David McFadzean, Deron Stewart, and Leigh Tesfatsion. All Rights Reserved.