SOLߞA Symbolic Language for General-Purpose Systems Simulation

Abstract

This paper illustrates the use of SOL, a general-purpose algorithmic language useful for describing and simulating complex systems. Such a system is described as a number of individual processes which simultaneously enact a program very much like a computer program. (Some features of the SOL language are directly applicable to programming languages for parallel computers, as well as for simulation.) Once a system has been described in the language, the program can be translated by the SOL compiler into an interpretive code, and the execution of this code produces statistical information about the model. A detailed example of a SOL model for a multiple on-line console system is exhibited, indicating the notational simplicity and intuitive nature of the language.