Re: [Swarm-Modelling] Something Glen said

[glen e. p. ropella]

Steven H. Rogers wrote:
> Rob Bowers wrote:
>> So is it the opinion of the Swarm community that a new user would be
>> better off investing in Repast?
>>
> 
> No.  While Repast is useful for some environments, and the use of Python
> for
> some things is interesting, I believe the Swarm/Objective-C is a better
> foundation for future ABM work than Java or .NET, at least for me.  If
> you're already a Java or C# programmer and have an aversion to learning
> Objective-C, Repast becomes more interesting.

While I agree that there is not a consensus opinion that a new user
would be better off investing in Repast.  _I_ hold that opinion for the
reasons already stated.  And I also agree that Objective-C (and Swarm's
idioms but not the current software) is a better foundation for future
ABM work than Java or .NET.

But, the current Swarm software is NOT a better foundation for future
ABM work.

> I believe the difficulty in getting started with Swarm may have been
> overstated.  Bearing in mind that I'm already a Linux user and have
> programmed in many languages, I found it quite easy to get Swarm running on
> my Sony laptop running Red Hat 9.  If I were beginning dissertation
> research, I wouldn't hesitate to use it, as is.

For all of us programmers, Swarm is and always has been pretty easy to
install and use.  But, this is often not the case with people who want
to model something.  It all boils down to how much we have to _force_
modelers to learn in order to be competent modelers.  If a modeler hires
programmers, she has to learn to be a manager (or at least a competent
customer... a very rare thing ;-).  If a modeler decides to do it
herself, then she has to become a programmer.

Is that the way it _should_ be?  We didn't have the technology in 1996
to overcome those two issues.  Do we have it now?  Perhaps not.  But,
I'd like to think we _might_

-- 
glen e. p. ropella, 971-219-3846, http://tempusdictum.com
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to
rule. -- H. L. Mencken