Hereby I'm announcing the release of version 0.2 of the _free_
C++ - class library for off-line simulation of Neural Networks, 

                     BACKNET

to the public knowledge.

BACKNET contains code for simulating Backpropagation Networks and 
Autoassociators (which is not completely functional yet). The library 
consists of classes written in C++ which
represent the functionality of the intended NN-type. 
It is directed to programmers who like to use the NN-functionality 
off-line (eg. without user-interaction) in other libraries,
on-line-measurement evaluation, etc. 

Another direction are programmers and end-users who would like to 
make use of their LAN's or parallel machines, and thus speedup their
NN-application. But that code isn't completely ready for this release, it 
is still worked on this part, although some initial application is included 
in the package. 

There's some documentation withdrawn with the archive, so I would encourage
you to get it and have a look at it. Two points I can't afford to hide 
from you:

(1) There may be libraries/applications that do the same and possibly at
a higher level than mine. This is the case for the moment, but will possibly
change for the future, when I get things done in a better way. 
As far as that: _the library is not intended to replace something which is
present at the moment and which may be better_, so don't shout at me this
way, just see this library as some alternative thing to the libraries/
applications currently available. For me, it is a subject to learn more about
programming, neural networks and (because I'm maintining this part myself)
networking.

(2) If you would like to do something yourself in the same area, please
consider to cooperate with me. Getting the archive you will see that there's
plenty of work to do and I really like contributions. Also if you have a 
real project where you would like to give my library a chance, I would
be happy to hear from you.

If you have critics, you should tell me, so that I can learn something.
Note that this is not a full-time-paid-project, where I earn money from. 
It is FreeWare. I do it in my spare time, and the other people yet cooperating
with me do it in their spare time as well. 


Okay, here's where you can get it from:
ftp://linux2.hrz.th-zwickau.de/informatik/neuro/backnet-0.2.tar.gz.
I plan to upload it to sunsite.unc.edu, but that may last a little time.

There's something like a homepage for it (but you will notice that I'm not
a creative-graphics guy!):
http://www.th-zwickau.de/~mme/backnet.html.

You can reach me by EMail: mme@pub.th-zwickau.de (Marko Meyer)
or in this newsgroup, although I'm not browsing through it daily.

Give it a chance and enjoy!
