woodlice.pl - Perl script for running woodlouse simulator
perl woodlice.pl
[--foreground blue]
[--background gray]
[--horiz 400]
[--vert 400]
[--image bacteria]
[--speed 0.006]
[--refresh 50]
Woodlouse simulation script
Invokes a woodlouse simulation demo using Tk::Taxis and Tk::Taxis::Critter. Press F1 whilst executing for help. The foreground colour scheme of the simulator, the background colouring, horiz(ontal) and vert(ical) size of the arena, the critter images used, and the speed and minimum refresh rate (milliseconds between refreshes) can be configured from the command line with the appropriate switches. The 'preference' option slider can also be disabled from the command line.
The simulation allows you to run up to fifty woodlouse critters in a light/dark choice chamber, print results to a log file, simulate woodlice's preference for the dark, damp or both. It was designed (as was the whole distribution) to teach school-children about the preference of woodlice for damp dark, without having to collect two thousand woodlice from the school grounds. I hope some biologists or teachers out there may also find it saves getting your hands dirty rooting around under rocks.
Steve Cook, <steve@steve.gb.com>
Copyright 2003 by Steve Cook
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
