Google Summer of Code
Sandpile Project
 
    
Summer 2009

As a Google Summer of Code project, Byran Head created a sandpile application for displaying and analyzing the Abelian Sandpile Model on finite directed multigraphs. His mentor was Reed College professor, David Perkinson, and the mentoring institution was Portland State University.

To download the latest version of the program, go to its github repository and hit the download button. After unzipping or untarring, change into the directory matching your system and double-click on SandpilesApp.jar or issue the command java -jar SandpilesApp.jar. Linux users may need to add the current directory to the library path for java: export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:., including the trailing period. (One could also add the full path to the SandpilesApp.jar directory, too).

More information about the program can be found at its wiki. Please write us if you need help (see below).


Sage
The program can interact with the Sage sandpiles package. If interested in try this, download SandPyle-Remote. Read the file for documentation. After starting Sage, type

sage: load sandpile.sage
sage: load SandpileRemote.py

to get started.


Applet
An early online version of the program appears here. Depending on your computer system, it may crash the browser, the window may not open, or it might even work. Problems are likely with IcedTea java. If the applet loads, hit Run for a spectacular display!

Request
The program available here is a work in progress. What would you like to see the program do? What features would you add? What types of information about the model would you like to visualize? Your suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated. Please send them to David Perkinson.

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