Evaluation and Selection Technique of Simulation Software
There are many features that are relevant when evaluating and selecting simulation software:
Do not focus on a single issue, such as ease of use. Consider the accuracy and level of detail obtainable, ease of learning, vendor support, and applicability to your applications.
Execution speed is important. Do not think exclusively in terms of experimental runs that take place at night and over the weekend. Speed affects development time. During debugging, an analyst might have to wait for the model to run up to the point in simulated time where an error occurs many times before the error is identified.
Beware of advertising claims and demonstrations. Many advertisements exploit positive features of the software only. Similarly, the demonstrations solve the test problem very well, but perhaps not your problem.
Ask the vendor to solve a small version of your problem.
Beware of "checklists" with "yes" and "no" as the entries.
Simulation users ask whether the simulation model can link to and use code or routines written in external languages such as C, C++, or Java. This is a good feature, especially when the external routines already exist and are suitable for the purpose at hand. However, the more important question is whether the simulation package and language are sufficiently powerful to avoid having to write logic in any external language.
There may be a significant trade-off between the graphical model-building environments and ones based on a simulation language. Graphical model-building removes the learning curve due to language syntax, but it does not remove the need for procedural logic in most real-world models and the debugging to get it right.
Beware of "no programming required" unless either the package is a near-perfect fit to your problem domain or programming (customized procedural logic) is possible with the supplied blocks, nodes, or process-flow diagram-in which case "no programming required" refers to syntax only and not the development of procedural logic.
Features of GPSS :
The features of GPSS are as follows:
GPSS is a highly structured, special-purpose simulation programming language based on the process-interaction approach and oriented toward queuing systems.
GPSS can be used to model any situation where transactions (entities, customers, units of traffic) are flowing through a system (e.g., a network of queues, with the queues preceding scarce resources)
It is the first process-interaction simulation language.
It is a flexible, yet powerful tool for simulation.
GPSS/H includes built-in file and screen 1/0, use of an arithmetic expression as a block operand, an interactive debugger, faster execution, expanded control statements, ordinary variables and arrays, a floating point clock, built-in math functions, and built-in random-variate generators.
The animator for GPSS/H is Proof Animation, which provides a 2D animation.
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