Hi all!  We're announcing a big release, the first in a while.

All these files can be found, as usual, at the MASON webpage 
http://cs.gmu.edu/~eclab/projects/mason/

MASON 20
This release largely consists of various bugfixes, plus a few new features, primarily a brand-new distributed parameter sweep package which enables you to run many simulations in parallel with different parameter settings.  It also contains code for compatibility with Distribute MASON.  MASON 20 may be installed either directly in the traditional way or via Maven.

GeoMASON 1.6
This release includes new demos and some changes in code to enable demos and other applications to be loaded from, and load from, jar files.  It also contains code for compatibility with Distribute MASON. GeoMASON 1.6 may be installed either directly in the traditional way or via Maven.

Distributed MASON 1
This is an ultra-pre-alpha version of a distributed MASON implementation hosted over MPI jointly done with ISISLab at the University of Salerno (it's not D-MASON but a new facility).  The objective is to make it possible to port MASON applications relatively straightforwardly to run in cloud computing architectures.  We have three demos for Distributed MASON right now: distributed HeatBugs, distributed Flockers, and Distributed CampusWorld (GeoMASON).  However Distributed CampusWorld -- which works well -- is not currently part of the standard distribution because of some Maven issues we have to work out first; but we'll get it there in a bit.  We are releasing this version of Distributed MASON to engage any early hackers who might like to poke at it.  It will undergo radical changes before we make it official.  If you are interested in a stable distributed version of MASON, we suggest looking at D-MASON.

We had to do a lot of refactoring and changes to get to this release, and there's a fair chance we messed up installation or instructions or something.  Please let us know if you find any problems!  (And I'm sure you will!)

Sean Luke
George Mason University