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February 2014

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Subject:
Re: How agents are chosen
From:
Sean Luke <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
MASON Multiagent Simulation Toolkit <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 09:27:06 -0500
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On Feb 27, 2014, at 8:42 AM, Megan Olsen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> so if I want to use this functionality, it looks like I need to reinvent it each time in each language.

I understand the convenience factor: indeed I think that NetLogo has some mechanism built-in to help you in this way.  But it is NOT a good idea to have this built in: easy parallel synchronicity encourages very sloppy thinking on behalf of model-designers.  You get race-condition questions like: why is my object O gone from the field?  Not realizing that agent A put object O in position P and simultaneously agent B put object Q in the same position, overwriting it, because neither had a chance to see that the other was placing something in position P.  This is a _bad_ idea.

Sean

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