Continuous system simulation in Python

[Michael]

Nicolas Pernetty wrote:

> I'm looking for any work/paper/ressource about continuous system
> simulation using Python or any similar object oriented languages (or
> even UML theory !).
> 
> I'm aware of SimPy for discrete event simulation, but I haven't found
> any work about continuous system.
> I would like to develop a generic continous system simulator, and so
> would be eager to join any open source effort on the subject.

There was going to be a talk on continuous system simulation (*) at
EuroPython this year, but for some reason it didn't appear to happen (It
was one of the talks I was hoping to see). I've no real idea of the content
of the talk or the work involved though for obvious reasons. Maybe that can
provide a lead?
   (*) http://www.python-in-business.org/ep2005/alisttrack.chtml?track=646
       "Implementing Continuous Time Simulation Systems in Python, Paul J
       Nolan"

Another lead //might// actually be to ask on the pygame list (MAYBE). It's
not directly the same thing, but essentially lots of games are in many
respects a form of continuous systems simulation, and someone on that
list might be able to point you in a good direction.

One book I bought a while back (looked interesting) which might be relevant
for you is O'Reilly's "physics for game developers", and and another is "AI
for games programmer"(*) since they both touch on these areas. If you have
a Safari account already that could be an easy way of checking to see
whether the book covers the sorts of answers you're after. (They don't use
python as their example language, but that's a minor problem really IMO)

(*) This is less obviously relevant, but deals with things deciding to move
    themselves around continuous spaces and visualised at indeterminate
    frame or display rates.

Best Regards,


Michael.