A Functional/Declarative Dichotomy for Characterizing Simulation Models

Traditional computer simulation terminology includes taxonomic divisions with terms such as \dis-crete event," \continuous," and \process oriented." Even though such terms have become familiar to simulation researchers, the terminology is distinct from other disciplines |such as artiicial intelligence and software engineering| which have similar goals to our own relating speciically to modelling dynamic systems. We present a perspective that serves to characterize simulation models in terms of their procedural versus declarative orientations. In teaching simulation students using this perspective, we have had success in relating the eld of modelling within computer simulation to other sub-disciplines within computer science.