The Simulation Model Development Environment: An Overview

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Simulation Model Development Environment (SMDE) that has been under development since 1983. The SMDE architecture is composed of four layers: (0) Hardware and Operating System, (1) Kernel SMDE, (2) Minimal SMDE, and (3) SMDEs. Following the incremental development software engineering life cycle, SMDE software components are identified. Guided by the principles enunciated by the Conical Methodology, evolutionary prototyping approaches have been used to develop the following minimal SMDE tools: Premodels Manager, Assistance Manager, Model Generator, Model Analyzer, Model Translator, and Model Verifier. The Model Generator has been the most critically important tools, and five prototypes have been developed.