Open source Simulation Modeling Language (SML)

The Simulation Modeling Language (SML/sup TM/) is an open source, Web-based, multi-language simulation development project guided by a consortium of industrial, academic and government simulation consultants, practitioners and developers. The vision of an open source simulation software initiative is to leverage the unique communication and distribution opportunities created by the Internet to open the development of simulation software to a worldwide community of talented software developers, researchers and modelers. For the simulation community, the open source movement represents an opportunity to improve the quality of common core simulation functions, improve the potential for creating reusable modeling components from those core functions, and improve the ability to merge those components using XML, HLA and other simulation community standards. This paper describes the SML software, the goals of the SML organization and relates the origins, philosophy and procedures of the open source movement to the objectives and needs of the simulation community.