The 28th ASU Conference, The Simulation Languages

The ASU Conferences have always been open to a broad range of topics within the field of computer programming and object oriented modeling and simulation. The application areas have also been from a wide spectrum of professional endeavors. Some of the fields that have been represented are telecommunications, manufacturing, neural networks, ecology, biology, traffic planning, legal systems, limnology, programming languages, railroad management, steel manufacture, optimization strategies and more. We intend to continue with this tradition of inviting presentations from a broad field of subjects. This year, however, we would like to emphasize that one theme is of special interest, "The Simulation Languages". In the past three decades a number of programming languages have appeared that are intended to be especially suitable for programming simulation models. Some of these are genuine computer languages in the sense that they are implemented through their own compiler that transforms source code into assembler code or binary code. Another group of simulation languages are specified as a separate language, but are implemented through the use of a different previously existing language. The range of possibilities here is broad and includes the variation in which the simulation language consists of a set of predefined procedures written in the host language that are especially suited for modeling and simulation. At the same time the host language's built in standard functionality is also available to the application programmer. The broad experience gained through the creation and use of these many different modeling and simulation tools invites the idea to take the strong sides of each and combine them into one powerful, best-yet language. The HELEF simulation language being developed at the Dept. of Intelligent Systems, Brno University of Technology is an example of this. A first presentation was given during the previous ASU conference and we are looking forward to this year's presentation. Presentations which give an in depth insight into existing simulation languages or which present new developments and new ideas are all welcome as contributions to this conference.