firelib-1.0.0.README
Copyright (c) 1996 by Collin D. Bevins


Description
-----------

fireLib is a C function library for predicting the spread rate
and intensity of free-burning wildfires.  It is derived directly
from the BEHAVE (Andrews 1986) FORTRAN fire behavior algorithms
for predicting fire spread in two dimensions, but is optimized for
highly iterative applications such as cell- or wave-based fire
growth simulations.

fireLib was developed to give fire simulation modellers a simple,
common, and optimized application programming interface to use
in their models.  It is written in ANSI standard C and compiles
under a wide range of C++ and K&R compilers.

fireLib consists of only 13 functions.  Eight functions create/destroy
fuel catalog, fuel model, fuel particle, and flame length table
objects.  The remaining five functions derive intermediate and
final fuel and fire behavior variables by fuel model, including
spread rate, reaction intensity, heat per unit area, fireline
intensity, flame length, and scorch height.

Included in this distribution is a Postscript version of the
"fireLib User Manual and Technical reference", and working code for
a simple, short, (and deprecated!) example fire simulator (fireSim)
demonstrating fireLib usage.


Distribution
------------

This is copyrighted and licensed software, but with very liberal terms.
Check the license.txt file for license terms.

The most recent distribution of fireLib is firelib-1.0.0 (Sep 1996).

The fireLib distribution consists of:

	CHANGES		change log
	fireLib.c	fireLib C source code
	fireLib.h	fireLib C header file
	firelib.ps	Postscript version of user manual/tech ref
	fireSim.c	example fire growth simulator
	license.txt	usage and redistribution license terms
	makefile	an extremely simple-minded fireSim makefile
	README		this file


Installation
------------

fireLib has been compiled and tested on the following
hardware/os/compiler combinations available to me:

	Intel / MSDOS / Microsoft C 6.00A
	Intel / Win95 / Borland 4.01
	Intel / NT 3.5 / Borland 4.5
	Intel / UnixWare 2.0/ cc
	Sparc / SunOS 4.3 / acc
	RS/6000 / AIX 3.5 / clx

There is only 1 source file (fireLib.c) and 1 header file (fireLib.h),
so I haven't yet felt the need to create a configure script or any
elaborate make file.  If you decide to create one, send me a copy to
include in the next distribution.  Likewise, if you compile this on
another platform/compiler, let me know!


Bugs
----

I will try to fix bugs ASAP and provide updates on our WWW/FTP site.
Please provide me with source and data manifesting the bug so that I
can duplicate it on one of the platform environments listed above.


Collin D. Bevins
cbevins@montana.com
October 3, 1996

