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| Topographica is under very active development, but there are always
more features that we have not yet been able to implement. These will
be listed in our SourceForge
Feature
Request tracker. Feel free to add suggestions of your own to that
list, or to
tackle one of the problems on the list if you need that
feature for your work. Other general, ongoing tasks include:
- ALERTs
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There are a large number of relatively small problems noted in the
source code for the simulator; these are marked with comments
containing the string ALERT. These comments help clarify how the code
should look when it is fully polished, and act as our to-do list.
They also help prevent poor programming style from being propagated to
other parts of the code before we have a chance to correct it. We are
slowly working to correct these issues.
- Improve documentation
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The reference manual is generated automatically from the source code,
and needs significant attention to ensure that it is readable and
consistent. For instance, not all parameters are documented yet, but
all will need to be.
- More testing code
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Topographica has a fairly complete test library, but there are still
classes and functions without corresponding tests. Eventually, there
should be tests for everything.
- Pycheck/pylint
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It would be helpful to go through the output from the pycheck and
pylint programs (included with Topographica), fixing any suspicious
things, and disabling the remaining warnings. That way, new code
could be automatically checked with those programs and the warnings
would be likely to be meaningful.
- More non-visual modalities
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Most of the specific support in Topographica is designed with visual
areas in mind, but is written generally so that it applies to any
topographically organized region. We are implementing specific
models of non-visual areas, providing input generation, models of
subcortical processing, and appropriate visualizations. For instance,
there are now models of somatosensory areas, such as hand surfaces and
rat whisker barrels, motor areas controlling eye movements, and auditory inputs.
Additional contributions from Topographica users with experience in
these domains will be particularly helpful.
- More library components
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Topographica currently includes examples of each type of library
component, such as Sheets, Projections, TransferFns, ResponseFunctions,
LearningFunctions, and PatternGenerators. However, many other types
are used in the literature, and as these are implemented in
Topographica they will be added to the library. Again, user
contributions are very welcome!
- More example models
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Topographica currently includes a number of example models,
mostly from the visual system but also from somatosensory,
auditory, and motor areas. As additional models are implemented,
they will be added as examples and starting points. Again, user
contributions are very welcome!
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