Routine Name:	planarweight

Description:	Sets the weight fields on groups of synapses between
		specified lists of elements.  Most often used to set
		weights on groups of synapses that have been set up
		by calling the "planarconnect" command.  This function
		can assign groups of synapses to a fixed weight, can
		assign weights in proportion to the distances between
		pre- and postsynaptic elements, and can add various
		types of randomness to weight values.

Usage:		planarweight sourcepath [destination_path] \
		-fixed weight                              \
		-decay decay_rate max_weight min_weight    \
		-uniform scale                             \
		-gaussian stdev maxdev                     \
		-exponential mid max                       \
		-absoluterandom

		sourcepath  A wildcarded list of elements which are the 
		        sources of the SPIKE messages connecting the
			pre- and postsynaptic elements (i.e. the presynaptic
			elements).  These must be of class "spiking" and are 
			usually spikegen or randomspike objects.

		destination_path  A wildcarded list of elements which must be
			synchans or objects derived from synchan.  If this
			(optional) argument is given, only the weights between 
			the given set of pre- and postsynaptic elements will
			be set by this command.  If this argument is not
			given, then all the synapses receiving SPIKE messages
			from the presynaptic elements will have their weights
			set by this command.  NOTE: this optional argument is 
			new and is not documented in the Book of GENESIS.

		-fixed weight  -- This option sets all the synaptic weights in
		        question to be equal to "weight".

		-decay decay_rate max_weight min_weight  -- This option sets
		        the synaptic weights in question to be proportional to
			the distance between the source and destination 
			elements according to the equation:

			weight = (max_weight - min_weight) * 
			  exp(-decay_rate * distance) + min_weight

			For planarweight, the distance is measured as:

			distance = 
			  sqrt((x_src - x_dest)^2 + (y_src - y_dest)^2)

			where x_src is the x component of the source element,
			x_dest is the x component of the destination element,
			and so on.  Note that the z component is not taken
			into account, which is unrealistic.  volumedelay
			uses the z component as well.

		The next four options are used to add random components to the
		weights established using the -fixed or -decay options.  How
		these random components are added to the weights is explained
		below.

		-uniform scale  -- This option gives a random number taken 
			from a uniform distribution in the range 
			{-scale, scale}.

		-gaussian stdev maxdev  -- This option gives a random number
			taken from a gaussian distribution centered on zero,
			with a standard deviation equal to "stdev" and with
			a maximum value of "maxdev".  The maximum value is
			used to limit the random component to a given range.

		-exponential mid max  -- This option gives a random number
			taken from an exponential distribution with a 
			minimum value of zero, a 1/e point of "mid" and a 
			maximum value of "max".  This is mainly for backwards
			compatibility with genesis 1.4.

		-absoluterandom  This option alters the way the random number
			is combined with the nominal weight to give the actual
			weight, as described below.

		Once a random component has been created for a given weight, 
		it is used to set the weight as follows.  If the 
		-absoluterandom option has not been selected the weight is set 
		to be:

		final_weight = weight + (weight * random_number)

		Whereas if the -absoluterandom option has been selected then
		we have

		final_weight = weight + random_number

		Thus the default is to have the amount of randomness as a 
		constant proportion of the weight value.

Example:	[modified from the Orient_tut simulation:]

		planarweight /retina/recplane/rec[]/input \
			     -decay 0.5 10.0 0.1          \
			     -gaussian 0.1 0.3

		This command will set the size of the weights of synapses 
		that are receiving their inputs from 
		/retina/recplane/rec[]/input.  It gives exponentially decaying
		weights with a maximum size of 10.0, a minimum size of 0.1,
		and a decay rate of 0.5.  It also specifies that gaussian
		noise be added to the weights with a mean value of 0.1 
		(which represents 10% of the original weight, since 
		-absoluterandom has not been selected) and a maximum value of
		0.3 (which is 30% of the original weight value).

Notes:		The "destination_path" optional argument is new and is not
		documented in the Book of Genesis.

		This routine calculates distance using only the x and y 
		coordinates of the element positions.  It is convenient for
		objects laid out in planar arrays but ignoring the z
		direction is somewhat unrealistic.  volumeweight is identical 
		to planarweight except that it uses the positions of elements 
		in three dimensions to calculate distances and is thus more 
		realistic.

		The weights are never allowed to go negative even if a large
		negative random component is added.  Negative weights are set
		to zero.

		The options -fixed and -decay are mutually exclusive.  The 
		different random options -uniform, -gaussian, and -exponential
		are also mutually exclusive.

See also:	volumeweight, planarconnect, planardelay; Chapter 18
                of the Book of GENESIS (2nd ed.) has a lengthy discussion on
                this and related commands.