A Gunk simulation is only a model of a clump of amorphous computers. As with any other model, trade-offs have been made between the faithfulness of the model and complexity and efficiency of the model. It is important to be aware of this fact. H LSIM is capable of a reasonable degree of accuracy in its model of Scheme program execution. The degree of accuracy is probably similar in predictive power to using an interpreter to predict compiled code performance.
Problems can arise from two sources.
These sources can be categorized into timing dependent and non-linear timing . If the correctness of the program depends on the relative speed of different program segments then is it timing dependent . A program is also timing dependent if its correctness depends on the relative speed of the program to communications. The main reason this might occur is that the simulator will use standard Scheme procedures if no Gunk version is defined. It assumes that the ordinary Scheme versions take a fixed, small amount of time.