Version 13 of Special Interest Group for Simulation

Updated 2018-01-22 08:29:32 by lm

Arjen Markus (20 december 2017) On the brink of the new year I have decided it is time to try and realize an old idea: form a group of Tcl'ers with a common interest in (system) simulation. By simulation I mean both natural systems and engineering systems and possibly other sorts of systems as well. (I have bluntly stolen the title from the ACM ...)

This page is currently a place holder, but the group has been formed: Adrien Peulvast is also keen to participate. Concrete ideas are budding, as I write this, but they are far from mature ;).

If you are interested, leave your name here.

Persons expressing interest

Arjen Markus (arjen) - I mainly deal with simulations of "natural" systems, using PDEs and ODEs, as well as statistical techniques. But in my spare time I am interested in a much wider category of systems.

Denny Moore (dmoore)

Adrien Peulvast (APE) - I deal with simulation of transportation systems (subway, train) for training (with the help of Tk for visual presentation), debugging and testing purpose.

DGP

Gerald Lester (GWL) - simulation for gaming.

Luc Moulinier ({lm]) - Complex systems simulation

Luc Moulinier

Objectives

Things to aim for with this group:

• Delineate what sort of systems (or simulations of systems) we are interested in
• Identify the tools we have and identify what tools we lack
• Define/build/develop - in a pragmatic way! - a framework for simulating and testing the sort of systems we are interested in. (Note: It may be very ambitious to put everything we want to do with simulation into a single "solution", so perhaps we should aim for several more dedicated frameworks)
• Demonstrate the strong points of Tcl/Tk regarding such systems

From a more technical point of view:

• We may need to include third-party libraries, such as databases or queuing systems

Roadmap

APE : I propose to let interested persons to add their names above until end of January, and then we will start thinking about the next steps. It doesn't mean that other persons cannot participate, but they will on-board in on-going activities.

roadmap item	target date
initial list of participants	31st January 2018
system simulation group start meeting	beg. February 2018 (?)
next steps definition	end February 2018 (?)

Definitions

APE : having a common shared understanding is mandatory to discuss. Let's start with first ones - simulation and system - and a third one linking them.

• System (Wikipedia) : A system is a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole. Every system is delineated by its spatial and temporal boundaries, surrounded and influenced by its environment, described by its structure and purpose and expressed in its functioning
• Simulation (Wikipedia) : Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. The act of simulating something first requires that a model be developed; this model represents the key characteristics, behaviors and functions of the selected physical or abstract system or process. The model represents the system itself, whereas the simulation represents the operation of the system over time.
• Ontology (Wikipedia) : In computer science and information science, an ontology is a formal naming and definition of the types, properties, and interrelationships of the entities that really exist in a particular domain of discourse. Thus, it is basically a taxonomy. It does not draw on the 'old' philosophical discipline 'ontology' as it was established in antiquity. An ontology (in information science) compartmentalizes the variables needed for some set of computations and establishes the relationships between them.

References

APE : can be anything used to support the group discussions from wikipedia, whitepapers, wiki pages.

Discussions

arjen Already quite a few years ago I added a module "simulation" to Tcllib. It covers only a very small set of simulation types, but it might serve as a beginning.

---