Just a quick note, with an attachment.
For me, what is most important about the simulation I'm now beginning
to work on can be captured in two words 'free' and 'open'.
I am attaching a copy of the GNU public license which I think you all
should read. The development of freely available and redistributable
software is a much-overlooked phenomenon. The media have recently
caught up with Linux and done a few stories on it but there is much
more going on than they realize.
I have been using GNU software and Linux for years and I'm grateful to
those who produced it. I look forward to being able to make a
contribution myself.
I am not an expert on economics but I'm pretty good at systems
analysis and computer programming. I will make mistakes, but since
the system will be completely open with all source code and
documentation freely available I think I can count on others to
catch the worst of them. That's how the free software phenomenon
works, and it does work.
If you look for it you can find free software, licensed with the
attached GNU public license, for almost any purpose: operating
systems, programming languages, editors, database management systems,
computer algebra systems, and even business applications. Therefore
I can confidently state that there WILL BE a free simulation system
someday, whether we do it now or somebody else does it.
I am making a start on it, and I hope others will volunteer to help,
though you may want to wait a bit until I've worked up the
requirements and design a bit more. I'm trying to do this right,
because mistakes caught early in develpment are more easily fixed.
If you see something I'm doing wrong PLEASE tell me about it.
I collected together some of my recent messages and boiled them down
to a single document, which I have put up on the web. It just
includes my own words, at the moment, but I'm willing to put up
comments and contributions from others. You've seen it all before
in my messages to this list, but if you want to take a look it is at
http://www.island.net/~dpwilson/simpage.html -- just text for the
moment, but I'll add simulation links as I find them.
dpw
Douglas P. Wilson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.island.net/~dpwilson/index.html
copying
