A Java Simulator for Membrane Computing
A software tool for handling P systems is presented, which can simulate basic transition P Systems where dissolution of membranes and priority rules are allowed and is carried out in an imperative and object-oriented language - Java.
Abstract
Membrane Computing is a recent area of Natural Computing, a topic where \nmuch work has been done but still much remains to be done. There are some applica tions which have been developed in imperative languages, like C++, or in declaratives \nlanguages, as Prolog, working in the framework of P systems. In this paper, a software \ntool (called SimCM, from Spanish Simulador de Computaci´on con Membranas) for \nhandling P systems is presented. The program can simulate basic transition P Systems \nwhere dissolution of membranes and priority rules are allowed. The software applica tion is carried out in an imperative and object-oriented language – Java. We choose \nJava because it is a scalable and distributed language. Working with Java is the first \nstep to cross the border between simulations and a distributed implementation able \nto capture the parallelism existing in the membrane computing area. This tool is a \nfriendly application which allows us to follow the evolution of a P system easily and \nin a visual way. The program can be used to move the P system theory closer to the \nbiologist and all the people who wants to learn and understand how this model works.