![[Note]](/wiki/docbook/images/note.png) | Note Commitment to Instant Publishing. This book is a working example of the SQI microPublishing philosophy of instant publishing. This book is a work-in-progress. All of the material is in draft form (some in rough draft form). Some of the sections have example code with little of the description provided. Some sections have notes that need to be expanded to full text at some point in the future. However, all of the material fulfills the SQI microPublishing concept that any insight or new knowledge has value and needs to be quickly shared into the community of interest. Current state of this chapter is Early Draft. |
Creating a simulation is about how to program resource constraints, behavior, knowledge transfer and visualization. It is also about the historical fabric and essence of what is being modeled. For Go West we are modleong the massive immigration into the Ohio river valley and the mid-west lands opened by this river highway..
In 1775 Daniel Boone and the Transylvania Company established Booneborough in what is now the state of Kentucky. This was the beginning of the great westward migration. By the late 1800s the migration had turning into a stead stream of settlers moving westward into the Ohio river valley.
... internal migrants commonly settled in a community, developed their lands, sold out, and migrated once again. This population movement dwarfed earlier migrations. Between 1800 and 1860 the population of the nonslave states west of the Appalachians increased by almost 8.5 million. The line of the fronter moved steadily westward at a rate that averaged seventeen miles a year in these decades. | ||
| --The Reader's Companion to American History, page 565 | ||
This historical Go West migration provides the "back story" for the simulation. The movement into an uncharted land, the search for a living and carving out of new towns and cities provide a reference point for the opportunities and behaviors modeled.
We do not try to recreate the great migration in detail or capture every event or condition that impacted the settlers. We do however try to create a simulation that is true in spirit. From very basic models of a search for a new life to the more advanced behavior models we look for simulation code that produces interesting pattern similar to the great westward movement and the hardy pioneers that lead the way..
The Go West environment is driven by the following principles:
From the ground up. Go West is the entry level KESE simulation and as such starts with he basics. We set simple goals in each section and reduce the complexity that is added to a minimum.
Our objective with Go West is to avoid the "catching the train that is already going 80 mile per hour" problem. Open Source development and graphics tools are world class and the power and sophistication can be overwhelming. Go West starts with "the train in the station." You can get aboard at you pleasure and ride along as it accelerates to 80.
Minimalist tool chain. Open source has a rich array of powerful development and graphics tools. However, the objective in Go West is simplicity. We will use the minimum tool chain to accomplish the goal of each section. From time-to-time, as the sophistication of the simulation increase, we will introduce new tools. Thus, we will incrementally increase the users understanding of and skills with development tools.
This approach enables the focus to mainly be on simulation development with minimal time spent in each segment on learning tools. However, by the end of the book a powerful, world-class tool chain will have been introduced to the student.
Incremental Development. This book develops the Go West simulation in small coding steps. This is done because: 1) incremental development enables the student for follow the code development, b) incremental development provides a tight mapping between a new concept and the code required to implement the concept, and c) this is the way I always develop - continuous incremental improvement.
There is another but less chronicled story of this during the this period. The great westward migration sweep before it a way of life thousands of years old. The native American tribes such as the Miamites or Illinois or Waicoutens (see map in ????) had lived and prospered in the Ohio river valley prior to the European immigration. The shear number and technology advantage sweep the indigenous culture aside.
We take this moment to acknowledge their presence and honor their culture.
Because of the relatively spares population and mostly mobile living style, the Europeans encountered a land of vast virgin forests rich in resources that was perfect for cultivation into productive farms. It is this process the is the focus of the Go West simulation. the presence and impact of native Americans is not modeled in this simulation. However, this would be an extremely interesting extension.