ALGOSIM(ID:6984/alg055)

Algol 68 based simulation 

for ALGOl SIMulator

Simulation language based on Algol 68

Shearn, Uni of SHeffield 1974
Related languages
ALGOL 68 => ALGOSIM   Based on
References:
  • Shearn, S. C. D "Discrete event simulation in ALGOL 68" Software -- Practice & Experience 5(3) July-Sept. 1975 view details
  • Falkoff, A. review of Shearn 1975 view details Abstract: The introductory portion of this article provides a brief, comprehensible description of the "three-phase method" of simulation of discrete events. Specific language features listed as necessary for dealing with such simulations are facilities for: 1) describing entities; 2) describing events; 3) controling the progress of the simulation; 4) dealing with queues, sets, or lists; 5) random sampling from statistical distributions; 6) collection and analysis of generated statistics; and 7) monitoring the simulation process.

    There follows some discussion on the difficulties in treating sets of entities in ALGOL-68, with the conclusion that "there can be no general procedures for dealing with even simple operations or sets such as adding a new entity to a set." The solution provided is to have sets contain only references to entities, and to define perhaps 20 terms for procedures and variables for maintaining such two-way chained sets. The other required features listed above are all treated in the course of the paper, and there is some discussion of practical problems of implementation.

    Although the author quite properly sees his work as the development of a language (ALGOSIM) superimposed, or built upon, ALGOL-68, he relies almost exclusively on examples to illustrate its use, and nowhere does he give a simple, comprehensive listing of the language elements he has introduced. Among other things, this makes it unnecessarily difficult for the reader who is not fluent in ALGOL-68 to assess the results. It would appear that a great deal of ingenuity has been applied to overcome fundamental deficiencies of the base language, such as the awkwardness with which it deals with arrays, and the rigidity of its declaration discipline.
          in ACM Computing Reviews 17(02) February 1976 view details