Simulation Programming Skills and Python

[gene tani]

Richard Blackwood wrote:
> Hello all. I have a few questions about simulation programming. One, do
> all programmers know to how to code a simulation? By simulation I mean a
> model of real world relationships (i.e. like Civilization which is a
> simulation of ruling nations through various historical settings). For
> example, could someone who codes word processing application necessarily
> know how to do a simulation of economic relationships between banks and
> enterprises if he/she had access to an economist? Is the skill of being
> able to translate in one's head realworld relationships into a model
> represented by code an inherent/native skill of all programmers? Two, is
> Python a good language for simulation programming?
>

The 2nd question is easy: python is excellent for your purpose, you'll
find lots of examples googleing for "python discrete event simulation",


http://simpy.sourceforge.net/

libs for linear algebra, statistics /probability / sampling, OR
algorithms, (both native libs and hooks to C/Fortran libs like GSL,
LAPACK etc.

The 1st question is open-ended, it's kind of like asking are
mathematicians good at music by disposition on average?  (or something
like that)  When you're modeling a knowledge domain with a developer
who doesn't master the details of the domain, you have to have
incredible specifications and testing, at all levels of the model


> Thank you all!
> 
> - Richard Blackwood