v1.2

Relative to release 1.1, this release offers:

• Improvements to UI, including the ability to zoom in/out of the graph.
• Automatic detection of temporary variables, with optimal cycle-breaking. This involves a minor change to the assignment operator which is done automatically during an upgrade to ...
• File schema 3
  • Uses less space.
  • Stores GUI coordinates in a scale-independent way.
  • We recommend that you commit any changes to your models before launching the updated app, as the upgrade to schema 3 will produce many small changes not directly related to your work.
• C backend support for
  • Video I/O via FFmpeg.
  • Export model as a native library (shared or static).
  • Multiple compilers: g++, clang, and cl (Miscrosoft).
  • Fixed-point arithmetic.
• Hyperparameter sweeps and optimization using Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm.
• Bibliography import/export.

For developers:

• Maven build system for dependency management.
• Apache SSHD rather than JSch for ssh support.
• Requires Java 15 or later to compile/run.

v1.1

Relative to v1.0, this release offers a significant overhaul of the user interface for editing models. Instead of a single equation tree, models are now broken into sub-parts that can be manipulated in a graph. Relations are visualized as connecting lines, and connection bindings can be made graphically. The UI supports both parts-relations and data-flow styles of modeling.

One goal of N2A is to foster a community that works together building a model of the whole brain. Toward that end, this release supports collaborative model building via Git integration.

"n2a.jar" is the only file you need to download. It contains the complete application and a basic set of neural-modeling components.

2021/07/29 -- If you wish to compile N2A yourself or contribute to development, see the Developer HowTo page. Please check out the latest code from git rather than using the snapshot here, as the build system has been overhauled to use Maven.

v1.1-alpha3

The main purpose of this release is to update the bundle of external dependencies, particularly JGit and its new dependency on BouncyCastle.

This release does contain a major enhancement to the GUI. Models can now be edited entirely in graphical form. Equations still appear in a tree structure, but these are broken into subparts which are edited as graph nodes.

v1.0-beta

After 7 years of development, N2A is now a fully-functional neural modeling tool. It can interchange data with other tools via NeuroML, and run simulations via C++, Java or jLEMS. There is also limited support for NEURON via jNeuroML.

This version is tagged "beta" because it needs to be tested by larger group of users. We would appreciate an email about your experience with the tool, positive or negative. Email address may be found in the application's Settings:About tab.

Note that 0.9 versions prior to July 2016 used OrientDB to store models. For efficiency and stability, we have written a new DB engine. ODB is no longer bundled with the application. In the unlikely case that you have models from this far back, contact us for help in converting them.

n2a.jar is a fully self-contained application, the only file you need to download.

For developers who wish to compile the program from source, externalLibs.zip contains a bundle of 3rd party libraries.