Using Domain Specific Language for modeling and simulation: ScalaTion as a case study

Author

Miller, John A. ; Han, Jun ; Hybinette, Maria

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

5-8 Dec. 2010

Firstpage

741

Lastpage

752

Abstract

Progress in programming paradigms and languages has over time influenced the way that simulation programs are written. Modern object-oriented, functional programming languages are expressive enough to define embedded Domain Specific Languages (DSLs). The Scala programming language is used to implement ScalaTion that supports several popular simulation modeling paradigms. As a case study, ScalaTion is used to consider how language features of object-oriented, functional programming languages and Scala in particular can be used to write simulation programs that are clear, concise and intuitive to simulation modelers. The dichotomy between “model specification” and “simulation program” is also considered both historically and in light of the potential narrowing of the gap afforded by embedded DSLs.

Keywords

programming languages; DSL; ScalaTion simulation; domain specific language; object-oriented programming; programming languages; programming paradigms; scala programming language; simulation program; Computational modeling; DSL; Functional programming; Java; Mathematical model; Object oriented modeling;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Simulation Conference (WSC), Proceedings of the 2010 Winter

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD

ISSN

0891-7736

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9866-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WSC.2010.5679113

Filename

5679113