Abstract

Unlike the more established programming languages, EDEN has little documentation supporting it. Unsurprisingly, this leads to a lack of standard approaches when writing EDEN code. With no recognised approaches, EDEN code has the potential to be incomprehensible. So, what are the effects of this on extending an existing model or even the effects of this on combining two existing models? These issues will be examined with regards to three sample pjawns models.

Popular programming languages often have documented 'good programming practices' which have been refined over time. The majority of these practices are transferable, so empirical modelling (EM) models should be comprehensible to some degree. However, how EM models represent some elements could be different to that in object-oriented programming. To assess this, the three sample pjawns models will be studied for the ease of comprehension. However there is no scale to determine the readability of code. So, to ensure that the code has been understood to a sufficient degree, an existing EM model will be extended. This demands a good understanding to ensure that the extension fits in with the current code. As a case study, artificial intelligence (AI) (which is already implemented on a basic level) will be developed further in one of the pjawns models. Taking the comprehension of EDEN code to the next step, two models will combined to form one model – this covers extensions of the code which may not have been planned. Such a task would demand a deeper understanding of the models. To study this issue, the model with the newly developed AI will be combined with a model which already has strong AI and have them play against one another.

The paper will cover:

The paper will then provide a summary of what was discovered through the exercises.