ANN: PyDSTool now compatible with numpy 1.0.1, scipy 0.5.2 and 64-bit CPUs.

[michael.tiller at gmail.com]

On Feb 20, 4:16 pm, Stef Mientki <S.Mientki-nos... at mailbox.kun.nl>
wrote:
> Sounds GREAT !
> thank you !
> I just took a quick look,
> the comparison to SimuLink looks good,
> now if someone could make a comparison with Modelica;-)
>
> cheers,
> Stef Mientki

As far as I can tell, PyDSTool provides some basic symbolic math
capabilities sufficient to formulate systems of equations that can
then be simulated.  The symbolic capability seems to be mainly to
allow for analytical Jacobian calculation (presumably for backward
differentiation algorithms, etc).  Someone feel free to correct me if
I'm wrong.

This is all quite useful and it is implicitly included in Modelica but
may important aspects of Modelica are missing.  For example, Modelica
includes inheritance (to facilitate reuse), polymorphism (to
substitute one implementation of a component for another), a strong
types system (to ensure safety and robustness), a meta-data
infrastructure including standardized metadata for documentation and
graphical representation, connectors to define interactions between
components, an expansive standard library and support for numerous
modeling formalisms both continuous, discrete and mixed systems of
DAEs (e.g. block diagrams, acausal modeling, state charts, petri
nets, ...).

My sense is that perhaps PyDSTool is attempting to leverage some of
these aspects directly from Python (e.g. inheritance).  I am a fan of
both Python and Modelica but when it comes to the kind of modeling
work I do I prefer the more "static" approach to type checking that
Modelica uses (of course that is just a personal preference).

--
Mike