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96 P.-O. Siebers and F. Klügl

• Simulation runtime support — tools for handling simulated time and space
(maps), animation, inspection tools for individual agents and their interactions.
• Appropriate ways to integrate model documentation, e.g. facilities to add com-
ments or specific elements of an ODD model documentation.
• Automated generation of simulation runs including interfaces for conducting
elaborated tests or manipulating model settings during runtime.
• Debugging and validation support.
• Convenient tools for defining experiments and input and output data handling.
Such tools make model handling more convenient and efficient, yet they are
built around a particular simulation platform that manages and executes a particular
model implementation.
Various specialised platforms for ABSS are available that aim at giving specific
support. Over the last decades, hundreds of platforms and tools have been suggested.
6
A Wikipedia page lists 89 tools (in April 2016). Wikipedia also provides an
up-to-date list of their attributes. Only a few of them deserve to be called an
IDE for ABSS such as Repast Simphony (repast.github.io/repast_simphony.html),
AnyLogic (www.anylogic.com/) or SeSAm (www.simsesam.org). In addition to
that list, there are a number of partially outdated surveys (Nikolai and Madey
2008; Railsback and Lytinen 2006; Kravari and Bassiliades 2015). The most
prominent platforms are NetLogo (ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/) and Repast
(repast.sourceforge.net/), they are covered in of each of the surveys. Other analysed
platforms include AnyLogic, MASON (cs.gmu.edu/~eclab/projects/mason/), Gama
(gama-platform.org)orSwarm (http://www.swarm.org).
Which platform to use depends on a variety of factors ranging from the
modellers’ personal preferences and experience to the properties of the model to
be implemented. Also whether the platform is a commercial one or open source
often plays a role. Providing general advice about the “best” platform is impossible.

Illustrative Example: Normative Comparison in an Office
Environment

Up to now we have seen that software engineering in general and AOSE in particular
offer a lot of support for developing ABSS models. Most of this support can
be coined “formal”: at the heart are clearly given process models describing the
different steps to go through when doing a simulation study. This is particularly
important for less experienced modellers as these process models help to solve the
problem of translating vague mental representations of models into descriptions that
are more and more refined. These methodologies help to know where one should
start when doing a simulation study.

6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_agent-based_modeling_software, accessed
07/05/2016.