Updates 2017/10/13

It is the end of semester and I'm busy marking from my students and working on some commercial projects. However, there was still time to fix and improve things. The modules that received the most attention are centered around Microsoft's deep learning framework CNTK (https://cntk.ai/).

Fixes

  • The LocalScopeTransformer now outputs the name of the last active actor in the error message instead of the first one's, in case the last active actor is not an actual transformer.

  • If you should encounter a problem on MySQL trying to create a table with a timestamp column that uses as DEFAULT '0000-00-00 00:00:00', then remove the NO_ZERO_DATE directive from the sql_mode option in your my.cnf/my.ini. E.g., use the following: sql_mode=IGNORE_SPACE,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_ZERO_IN_DATE,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

  • adams-weka: The SpreadSheetSaver Weka converter no longer loses the configured writer (setOptions now calls the super method first, as it calls resetOptions).

  • adams-cntk-weka: The CNTKPrebuiltModel classifier now handles the flexible structure of CNTK regression models better.

Changes

  • Upgraded lanterna (terminal applications) to 3.0.0.

  • Bumped up CNTK to 2.2.

  • The Preview browser now uses simple file monitoring to update the display (using the LastModified monitor).

  • Spreadsheet writers are now stoppable (at least the ones that write the data incrementally).

  • Introduced StopRestrictor interface for better stopping of flow or parts of flow, affecting the Stop actor, interactive actors and LocalScopeTransformer/LocalScopeTrigger.

  • Added has(sym) operator that checks whether a certain symbol is present, affecting BooleanExpression, MathematicalExpression and ReportMathExpression.

  • The Revert menu item in the Flow editor now detects if a file was modified on disk.

  • The ProgressBar sink now has an optonal title option for displaying a title string within the panel itself, which is useful when displaying multiple progress bars at the same time.

Additions

  • OptionProducer transformer for turning objects into option strings using the specified OptionProducer scheme.

  • The CloseCallableDisplay control actor allows closing of frames of callable actors.

  • Added the Command source for executing an external command: it is similar to the Exec source, but outputs stdout and/or stderr as continuous stream instead of waiting for the process to finish before outputting them.

  • adams-meta:

    • Added NewFlow for generating a flow using a template.

    • FlowFileReader reads a flow from disk and FlowFileWriter writes it to disk.

    • FlowDisplay simply displays the incoming flow as tree (like the flow editor).

  • adams-cntk:

    • Added a preference panel for CNTK, at this stage only for specifying the binary.

    • The CNTKSetup standalone allows overriding the global settings (ie binary) for CNTK within a flow.

    • With the CNTKBrainScriptExec flow it is possible to execute a brainscript and display the output. With the usual string processing facilities in ADAMS, you can also plot the performance of the network per epoch, e.g., plotting the RMSE.

    • Added reader for CNTK text files: CNTKSpreadSheetReader

    • Added CNTKModelReader and CNTKModelInfo for reading a model and outputting information about a model.

Have a great Friday 13th! ;-)