On Sep 25, 2006, at 4:55 PM, Günther Greindl wrote:

> I have surveyed the field of ABM simulation software,
> and have finally decided I will either settle for Repast or
> Mason -  both appeal to me: Repast because it is specifically
> designed to meet Social Simulation needs and seems to has
> a big following in the socsim community, and Mason because of it's
> design (on the code level). (lean and mean  ;-)
>
> Has anybody tested both platforms and can offer some insight
> on the differences (I'm interested in _opinions_ :-))?

I obviously have a bias.  :-)  So I'll let others speak on MASON's  
behalf.  However, it's worth mentioning:

> A good starting point seems to me the sugarscape model (I also want
> to include resources and competition between the agents).
> The agents should be adaptive in the long run (read: learning  
> ability) -
> although this goes somewhat contrary to the keep it simple paradigm.
>
> There is an implementation for Repast, it is also listed on the  
> Mason site
> as a project but I did not find a download.

Tony Bigbee and Claudio Cioffi-Revilla are your answer men here.   
Tony Bigbee did what I understand to be the most complete Repast  
reimplementation anywhere.  He did it in MASON.  I believe Tony is  
cleaning up the code and he may be able to give you some  
information.  I'm cc:ing him.

Sean