Silk™:: A Java']Java-based process simulation language

We discuss various aspects of the design, implementation, and use of Silk, a general purpose simulation language based on the Java programming language. Silk merges familiar process-oriented modeling structures with powerful object-oriented language features in an intelligent design that will encourage model simplicity and reusability. An important aspect of this design is the use of Java's built-in support for multithreaded execution which is employed as a means to coordinate the concurrent entity flows in process-oriented simulations. We also demonstrate how the use of JavaBeans supports graphical assembly of Silk modeling components in software environments such as Symantec's Visual Cafe, IBM's VisualAge, and Microsoft's J++. It is argued that a language such as Silk is essential to keeping simulation modeling on track with other revolutionary changes taking place in Internet-based computing.