The Java based cellular automata simulation system--JCASim

The software system JCASim is a system for simulating cellular automata. It can simulate cellular automata (CA) with different geometries, different state sets (including state sets structured by the use of state components with different types), boundary conditions and initial conditions. The state transition function can be specified using a graphical user-interface, using Java (by programming only four methods), or in CDL, a special-purpose CA language. Cells can be represented by text, colors, or icons. JCASim also provides support for block-CA and for asynchronous models. The system is written entirely in Java to ensure portability. Here we describe the simulation system and show a number of examples, which demonstrate the ease of programming CA with JCASim. Finally, some issues surrounding execution speed are discussed.