Routine Name:	syndelay

Description:	This command is used to set or to add a small "synaptic" 
		component to the delay fields of synapses.  It is useful 
		for when cells are very close together and thus where 
		planardelay or volumedelay give unrealistically small
		delays.

Usage:		syndelay path delay                        \
		-add					   \
		-uniform scale                             \
		-gaussian stdev maxdev                     \
		-exponential mid max                       \
		-absoluterandom


		path  A wildcarded list of elements which must be synchans or 
		        objects derived from synchan.  

		delay -- This sets all the synaptic delays in question to be
                        equal to "delay", or adds "delay" to the existing
                        delay if the -add option is selected.

		-add  This option causes the delays to be added to the 
		        preexisting delays in the synapses instead of
			overwriting them.  

		The next four options are used to add random components to the
		delay.  How these random components are added to the delays 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 delay to give the actual
			delay, as described below.

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

		final_delay = delay + (delay * random_number)

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

		final_delay = delay + random_number

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

Example:	syndelay /cell[]/apical_dend/Ex_chan 0.001 \
			    -add -gaussian 0.1 0.3 

		This command will add a small delay to the delay fields in the
		synapses in /cell[]/soma/apical_dend/Ex_chan.  The "synaptic"
		delay added will be 1 millisecond plus a random component.

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

		If the -add option is chosen, the random component modifies 
		only the delay added and not the total delay.

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