Books
End-User Programming
Repenning, A. and A. Ioannidou 2006. What makes End-User Development Tick? 13 design guidelines. in End-User Development. F. Patern&Mac247; and V. Wolf. Dordrecht, Kluwer.
Your Wish is My Command: Programming by Example Programming by example (PBE) and programming by demonstration (PBD) represent a departure from traditional programming methodology. Why should someone need to learn a complicated syntax to train a computer to perform an action? The idea is to instruct the computer to complete the action and let tools create the necessary syntax. This book discusses several different approaches in a range of industries where the technology is applicable and currently in use.
Simulation
Micro Motives and Macro Behavior, Thomas C. Schelling, 1978, A classic based on the 1971 paper "On the Ecology of Micromotives" explaining how small local phenomena and mind sets can lead to unexpected global consequences. Schelling explains some of these issues using board games.
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell, 2000, "The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." This book is not really about simulations but simulations are ideal means to explore epidemics and to get a concrete sense of the Tipping Point. The [/_Applets/virus-attack-finished/index.html/ AgentSheets virus attack simulation] is an example of an epidemic.
Life on the Screen, Identify in the Age of the Internet, Sherry Turkle, 1995, This book is not concerned with technical aspects of simulation but about its social perspective. Turkle claims that we, as society of computer users, are advancing from a culture of calculation toward a culture of simulation. Simulation in her sense is about the way computers allow us to alter our identity. We found many parallels in our work with school kids creating animal world simulations. Very often these kids no longer distinguished between the artificial animals they had created and themselves.
Learning With Artificial Worlds : Computer Based Modeling in the Curriculum, Harvey Mellar, Joan Bliss, Richard Boohan, Jon Ogborn, 1994, A nice collection of papers about how modeling can be used in schools. A number of tools are discussed including spreadsheets, fluid-based modeling tools such as STELLA, and AgentSheets-like environment such as WorldMaker.
Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams : Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds, Mitchel Resnick, 1997, An exciting book about emerging phenomena and modeling in StarLogo. Through collaboration StarLogo and AgentSheets co-evolved for quite some time. Many things that can be done in AgentSheets could also be done in StarLogo and the other way around.
Growing Artificial Societies : Social Science from the Bottom Up, Joshua M. Epstein, 2050 Project, Robert L. Axtell , 1996, An ambitious book showing how complex issues such as sex, culture, and combat can emerge from simple formalism. Braden Craig created a language extension kit to AgentSheets and built many of the simulations in the book. Braden thesis work called AGES (Agentsheets Genetic Evolutionary System) can be freely accessed .
The Evolution of Cooperation, Robert Axelrod, 1985, From the Publisher "The much-discussed book that explores how cooperation can emerge in a world of self-seeking egoists--whether superpowers, businesses, or individuals--when there is no central authority to police their actions." Axelrod is a leader in applying computer modeling to social science problems.
The Complexity of Cooperation Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration (Princeton Studies in Complexity), Robert Axelrod, 1997, Collection of essays serving as sequel to "The Evolution of Cooperation"
Programming
Java in a Nutshell, David Flanagan , 1997. Our current pick of a Java introduction book. Very compact. Ideal for people with C++ or Lisp background. More neutral than the Sun books.
Common Lisp: The Language, Guy L., Jr. Steele, 1990. If you program in Lisp you need this book.
