[Repast-developer] RePast Scheduler Upgrade Goals

[North, M. <no...@an...>]

RePast Developers:

After a long series of discussions with Nick Collier and David Sallach, I
have decided to upgrade the RePast scheduling system.  My plan is to have a
new RePast scheduler ready for beta testing by the end of January 2002, and
have the new scheduler ready for final release by the end of February 2002.
As part of this process, Nick, David, and I have agreed to the following
goals:

1.) The new RePast scheduler should allow arbitrary time steps to be
specified by double precision numbers that can vary between events, instead
of the current fixed integer time steps.  This will clarify the design and
simplify the development of many models because it will allow the each
application's natural time intervals to be directly used.
2.) The new RePast scheduler should allow concurrent task execution.  This
will speed model execution on multiprocessor systems since several threads
of execution may be active simultaneously.
3.) The new RePast scheduler should be completely compatible with previous
versions.  This will allow all previously working models to continue to work
without modifications.

Nick, David, and I have developed a design based on these goals.  I will
forward more information this proposed design in the next few days.  Before
I do this, I am interested in finding out if people have any thoughts or
comments on these goals.

Mike

Michael J. North
Software Engineer
Argonne National Laboratory
Decision and Information Sciences Division
Complex Adaptive Systems Section

9700 S. Cass Avenue
Argonne, IL 60439

E-mail: no...@an...
Telephone: (630) 252-6234
Facsimile: (630) 252-6073