SYMFOR code documentation

SYMFOR is a software framework that contains models of ecological forest processes and forest management strategies. It is designed for use by researchers based in the developed and the developing world, from universities, research institutes, government advisory bodies, private industry and NGOs. It is designed to be straightforward to use in a simple case, but to have advanced levels of control for expert users. It has graphical data representations for run-time interpretation, and flexible data output mechanisms for larger analyses. It runs on IBM compatible personal computers using modern Windows operating systems. For a combination of historical and practical reasons, the front end, or user interface, is written in Visual Basic. It is referred to as the “model manager”. The data storage, the models and the data processing are written in C++ as a dynamic link library, referred to as the “DLL”. The model manager liases between the user (the screen) and the DLL, with information necessarily passing both ways. This document attempts to describe the structure of the software, from both a conceptual and a filebased perspective. Prospective maintainers of the code can use this document as a reference guide or general introduction. The intention is that they will then be able to know where to start for a particular problem, and will have an overall picture of how the software functions.