A comparison of object oriented simulation languages (abstract)

摘要

A network computer system was simulated as a single server queuing system using several computer languages including two object oriented languages. An initial simulation using Smalltalk-V was implemented on a Mackintosh II microcomputer. A procedure oriented Pascal program was then implemented on the Mack II machine. A HP Vectra PC was then used to implement the same problem in Pascal, with and without an object oriented option on Turbo Pascal 5.5.

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The programming was performed by two undergraduate computer science students with considerable programming experience, but who were using object oriented concepts for the first time. Developing the model of the network system to be simulated and implementing it in an object oriented language took several weeks. However, once the task was complete, implementing the model in the three other methods described was fairly simple.

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Both students found that using an object oriented system in a programming environment supplied by Smalltalk V was alittle different than programming in a procedure oriented language such as Pascal. Once they became familiar with the Smalltalk environment, they both felt that they would prefer to develop simulation systems in Smalltalk.

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The code lengths of the programs were each about 500 lines, with Smalltalk V being somewhat less and Turbo Pascal 5.5 somewhat more. Run times were significantly different, however. Smalltalk-V run time for 10 replications of the simulation was 2.7 minutes, with structured Pascal taking 5.5 minutes, each on the Mack II microcomputer. Structured Pascal took 1.5 minutes on the HP Vectra, but Turbo 5.5 took 36 minutes. If this same ratio of times applies (i.e., the HP Vectra being 5.5/1.5 time as fast as the Mack II), then we would expect object oriented Turbo 5.5 to take 132 minutes to run on the Mack II. At least we found that the object oriented approach can be either faster or slower than a structured approach.