Last week I visited with John Bolte and Charles Hillyer at Oregon State University to discuss design and implementation of the framework. It was an intensive, but enjoyable week, in which most of our time was spent in front of a whiteboard. Tim Budd and Doug Dechow joined us for several sessions. The modeling framework as it stands now uses COM to let components communicate, meaning that components can be written in a number of computer languages. The design deals with all components in a uniform way, yet is explicit about differences between continous and discontinuous models, as well as between models that use ordinary differential equations and models that use partial differential equations.
Components models are very loosely coupled, so that they can be swapped at any time.
We have begun to define support for spatial models, but are still missing a few pieces. Over the next few months the core of the framework, some additional classes, and a visual modeling environment will be implemented. If any of you out there want to help by providing a component, please let us know and we'll show you how to fit it in. This workshop will take place on 19 July in Florence, Italy. The goal of the workshop will be to provide the participants with practical training in using the modeling framework in their own projects.