[Repast-developer] Slight addition to ThinController

[Mark R. D. <mdi...@la...>]

Nick,

I've added an extra method to the version of ThinController I am using 
currently, I think it would be a nice addition to the class itself. 
Specifically, I am providing an "initSim()" method, analogous to 
"begin()" in the BatchController. This method provides just enought 
rudimentary threading control to get the simulation launched in a new 
Thread and wait for it to complete. I did this so I would not need to do 
"thread management" in my taglibrary wrapper for the controller and I 
can just rely on the threading available in the ThinController to get 
the simulation started and wait until its finished before returning from 
the initSim method. This should allow my taglibrary to support any 
controller. (as you can see by my examples: models/cagn and models/simple).

However, I still find myself having to call different methods to get the 
controller "initialized". Consolidating 
Controller.display(),BatchController.begin() and 
ThinController.initSim() into one standard method in the IController 
interface would provide for a consistent way to initialize the 
controller across all controllers. It could be backward compatable for 
the time being by just creating an initSim method in the IController and 
BaseController,  then overriding it in Controller and BatchController 
with calls to display or begin. Eventually, 
uchicago.src.sim.engine.SimInit could be modified to use the new initSim 
method and there would no longer be the need to determine what type the 
controller was just to get it initialized/running. I think we had 
discussed this before, though I can't recall your response.

If ThinController.initSim() seems like the "wrong" name for this method, 
I'm not attached to it.

One other thing, in this situation I find the System.exit() call in the 
ThinController.exitSim() results in the shutdown of the entire JVM, if 
I'm using it in the Jelly env. where I might want to do post processing 
after the  exitSim occurs I loose the JVM instance before I can do those 
things. I've been commenting it out in my version. Since it is a method 
available from "System" I'm concerned about it being in the Controller, 
specifically because, if the user of ThinController is either doing 
thier own Thread Management or relying on initSim() for this, they can 
decide if they want to do a System.exit() after exitSim occures in thier 
code. Having it in the exitSim method, they loose that flexibility.

Thanks
-Mark