Dynamic physical system simulation and object oriented programming
John Douglas Reid · Michigan State University Libraries · 1990
Many useful software packages exist today that effectively implement physical theory in order to support dynamic physical system simulation. As simulation methodologies mature and extend, so must their software implementations. A relatively new software methodology, known as object oriented programming, is investigated to determine its impact on the future of physical system simulation. A bond-graph/block-diagram processor is developed using Smalltalk-80 to help delineate the benefits and difficulties of using the object oriented paradigm. Encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism are shown to provide a framework that supports extendible software on both a small and large scale that is typically lacking in conventional languages (e.g., FORTRAN and PL/I). This includes user customization of the software, as well as incorporating major enhancements to the software. Additionally, object oriented implementations are shown to follow closely the world they are modeling. This allows the software designer to concentrate on the problem being solved and not on transforming a theoretical solution of the problem into a software implementation.