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Software for calculating host specificity |
The software provided here calculates an index of host specificity for parasites based on the number of species, genera, families, orders, and classes in which a species is found. It incorporates the hierarchical information about host distribution included in the Linnean hierarchy, but it is not explcitly tree based. See Caira et al. (in press) for discussion and justification and for examples of the ways in which it can be used.
The software is currentaly available only for Windows and Linux. We hope to make a Macintosh version available, but because the wxWindows library, which provides the interface for the program, is less robust on the Macintosh platform, we are unable to guess when a Macintosh version might be available.
You can download the software in several forms:
For Windows: You can download either a self-extracting executable that uses the standard Windows installer or a ZIP archive. The same files (including complete source code, if you select the "Full installation" option) will be found in both. We recommend using the self-extracting executable unless you encounter problems with it, because it will automatically install the program in your "Program Files" directory and create a shortcut in the "Start" menu.
Two binary files are required for proper execution of the program, the main program file (specificity.exe) and a dynamic load library (cygwin1.dll). Unless you're familiar with the Cygwin tools and comfortable with invoking Windows programs from the command line, we recommend that you install both of these files to the same directory.
setup.exe (self-extracting executable)
specificity.zip (ZIP archive)
For Linux: You can download a gzipped tarball that includes a GNOME X11 executable (compiled and linked with GCC v3.0.4 on RedHat v7.2) and complete source code. Copy the downloaded file to any convenient directory and extract with the command:
tar -zxf specificity.tar.gz
This will create a directory "specificity" under the current directory in which you'll find the executable and a subdirectory "src" of that directory in which you'll find the C++ source, Makefile, and associated resources.
specificity.tar.gz (gzipped tarball)
The software is provided under terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2. You are free to distribute copies of the program, but please notice that the GPL requires that all files included with the original distribution be included with any copies. That means that you should include the source code and a copy of the GNU General Public License with any copies of the software you pass on. The easiest way to make sure that you comply is by passing on a copy of either the self-extracting archive or the ZIP file as you received it.
Caira, J. N., K. Jensen, and K. E. Holsinger. (in press). On a new index of host specificity.