Re: copy protocol and object ravioli

[glen e. p. ropella]

> Let me get this straight: are you saying that, if for example, I am
> simulating a soldier in battle, and I assume that soldiers don't
> clone themselves during the actual fighting, then I am not allowed
> to give their software counterparts the ability to clone themselves
> on the basis that it is not part of the model being simulated?
> 
> I must've missed the point completely...
> M.

Basically, that's the point.  Why *would* you give the 
soldiers the ability to clone themselves when simulating
a battle?  The idea of using simulation to simulate real
systems is to prune out the irrelevant detail and focus
on what's important.  A soldiers ability to reproduce is
probably not relevant to a battlefield simulation.

Do you see the difference between programming and modelling?
If we intend to help non-programmers simulate their
abstract models, then we want to remove any of the low-level
programming constructs (like the necessary positioning of 
a copy inside the agent class) as much as possible.

Yes, you would be allowed to give the software counterparts
of soldiers on a battlefield the ability to clone themselves;
but, that is not, in any way, part of the model being simulated.

glen