@Article{railsback06a,
  author =	 {Steven F. Railsback and Steven L. Lytinen and
                  Stephen K. Jackson},
  title =	 {Agent-based simulation platforms: review and
                  development recommendations"},
  journal =	 {Simulation},
  year =	 2006,
  volume =	 82,
  number =	 {9},
  pages =	 {609--623},
  abstract =	 {Five software platforms for scientific agent-based
                  models (ABMs) were reviewed by implementing example
                  models in each. NetLogo is the highest-level
                  platform, providing a simple yet powerful
                  programming language, built-in graphical interfaces,
                  and comprehensive documentation. It is designed
                  primarily for ABMs of mobile individuals with local
                  interactions in a grid space, but not necessarily
                  clumsy for others. NetLogo is highly recommended,
                  even for prototyping complex models. MASON, Repast,
                  and Swarm are "framework and library" platforms,
                  providing a conceptual framework for organizing and
                  designing ABMs and corresponding software
                  libraries. MASON is least mature and designed with
                  execution speed a high priority. The Objective-C
                  version of Swarm is the most mature library platform
                  and is stable and well organized. Objective-C seems
                  more natural than Java for ABMs but weak
                  error-handling and the lack of developer tools are
                  drawbacks. Java Swarm allows Swarm’s Objective-C
                  libraries to be called from Java; it does not seem
                  to combine the advantages of the two languages
                  well. Repast provides Swarm-like functions in a Java
                  library and is a good choice for many, but parts of
                  its organization and design could be improved. A
                  rough comparison of execution speed found MASON and
                  Repast usually fastest (MASON 1-35\% faster than
                  Repast), Swarm (including Objective-C) fastest for
                  simple models but slowest for complex ones, and
                  NetLogo intermediate. Recommendations include
                  completing the documentation (for all platforms
                  except NetLogo), strengthening conceptual
                  frameworks, providing better tools for statistical
                  output and automating simulation experiments,
                  simplifying common tasks, and researching
                  technologies for understanding how simulation
                  results arise.},
  url = 	 {http://jmvidal.cse.sc.edu/library/railsback06a.pdf},
  cluster = 	 {14771824564050369362},
  doi = 	 {10.1177/0037549706073695}
}