Re: slightly off-topic: support open source for publically-funded research

[Marcus G. Daniels]

>>>>> "GR" == glen e p ropella <address@hidden> writes:

GR> This is the point, of course.  The long-awaited capabilities of
GR> software reuse hinge upon being able to describe software without
GR> requiring the audience to be intimately familiar with the
GR> software.

My claim is that novel, complex, abstractions can be hard to grasp
independent of their form (in English, ODEs, or computer code, etc).
These kinds of abstractions are not unusual when doing agent-based
modeling and so open source is useful because the common case of
research use involves the exercise and modification of computer code.

In other words, I think alternative representations have marginal
value since they will ALSO be hard to grasp.  Worse, since research is
shifting sand by definition, there isn't a lot of available energy to
do a good job of iterating the translation, and thus it will probably
be done in an inadequate way when averaged over many instances of
different research efforts.  So, assuming Murphy's law, open source is
important because it is a useful as a contingency.

In less complex cases (which should be sought), I believe it is
preferable to avoid code as a communication scheme.  Frankly, I'm
inclined to bound the application of ABM to first-cut evaluation of
phenomena for just this reason...

As far as software re-use goes, my experience is that having source
code is invaluable for understanding what software does and even is
intended to do (given the context).  It isn't necessary to become
intimately familiar with a whole system, just dig down enough into the
particular pieces that are of interest at the time.  I find this kind
of thing, combined with available documentation, helps to me to model
what the author was thinking at the time of its writing.


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