Why use OO methodologies to implement an application that is inherently object-based?
For the same reason you don't use assembly language to write business applications: it would be bad computer science. You could write an ABM in any language, including assembly, but why in the world would you want to do that? This is not confusing the agent based design with its implementation. Rather, it is recognizing the characteristics of the design and picking an implementation environment that makes sense. Also note that I never suggested which OO languages should be used -- that choice depends on the implementation requirements for the project. As a side note, it is interesting to observe the growth in usage of higher-level languages for implementing ABMs in the HPC environment. We are currently investigating with The MathWorks the use of MATLAB's OO capabilities and their Distributed Computing Toolkit (DCT) to implement distributed ABMs on one of our Linux clusters... --Doug -- Doug Roberts, RTI International [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] 505-455-7333 - Office 505-670-8195 - Cell On 6/4/07, Robert Holmes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 6/2/07, Douglas Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > <snip> > [*Footnote from the (or should be) above: I know people who have > written applications with no object-oriented technologies at all, using > FORTRAN or C, (or worse, purely procedural Java) and who claim to have > developed an ABM. I contend, that while they may have developed a really > neato simulation, it isn't an ABM. Where are the agents? Rows of an array? > Elements of a struct? An array of structs? I really don't think so. Why? Logically that position doesn't make sense - it seems to confuse the model with the implementation of the model. For example, Epstein & Axtell's Sugarscape model is an ABM. If I code it up, does it only remain an ABM if I code in C++? Does the Sugarscape model suddenly stop being an ABM if I code it in FORTRAN? It might be easier to code in one type of language rather than the other, but that's not the point. ABM-ness is a property of the model, not the code. Robert ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
