The Programming Language Aspects of ThingLab, a Constraint-Oriented Simulation Laboratory

The programming language aspects of a graphic simulation laboratory named ThingLab are presented. The design and implementation of ThingLab are extensions to Smalltalk. In ThingLab, constraints are used to specify the relations that must hold among the parts of the simulation. The system is object-oriented and employs inheritance and part-whole hierarchies to describe the structure of a simulation. An interactive, graphic user interface is provided that allows the user to view and edit a simulation.

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