My first post

Not only is this my first post on my blog, it shall be my first moan!

I've been looking into using Repast for part of my PhD project. Now, usually I would link to it in an attempt to show it some support but I'm so fed up with it I decided against it.

I am using C# and XNA to develop the world in which my simulation will run but need to have something to run the underlying Agent Based Model. Repast has two version, a newer, hard to use version called simphony (yes, the spelling is correct), and Repast 3.1 which allows you to connect any part of the .NET framework to it.

Sadly, after trawling the Internet for hours I discovered that Visual Studio 2008 isn't supported, 30 minutes later I realised that neither is Visual Studio 2005. It seems to only like the old, out-dated and no longer supported version of 2003.

Now this is worse than it should be. There is no real need for me to use a development environment but in order for me to learn the way Repast makes models, I need one of the damn templates which refuse to import into either of the other two.

I have still to decide if I will be using Repast and if I am being honest, the decision isn't really mine to make as it will need to coincide with other research that is already happening at Edinburgh University but I hope that once I get home and fish out a version of Visual Studio.NET 2003 that the actual programming of ABM's in this environment is easier than attempting to find any Repast.NET documentation as it all seems to be Java based tutorials only.

Anyways, rant over.

Chris