External procedural functions

To include user-defined external procedures, there are three files:

1. A file under the Functions directory with the .pl extension. This file can also contain macro definitions. Procedurally defined functions that are treated as being built-in to Simile go in Simile's installation tree, while those that are treated as user-defined go in the local information tree. The declarations take one of two possible forms:

   function(Name, ResultType, ArgTypes).
   This form is used for ordinary, deterministic functions.
   sample(Name, ResultType, ArgTypes).
   This form is used for functions which give a new value each time they are called, even if the arguments do not change. This is used for stochastic functions such as gaussian_var, and is required because Simile otherwise tries to be lazy -- it only re-evaluates a function if the arguments change.

   In either form, "Name" is the name of the function, which is used in Simile's equation language. "ResultType" the type of the result - one of int, real, boolean or any - and "ArgTypes" a list of argument types in the same form. These allow the Prolog equation parser to accept this function in equations, and to put it into the target language program as a procedure call wherever it is used.

2. procs.cpp -- This is in the same Functions directory as the function declaration. It contains the C++ implementation of the function. When the model is built in C++, during compilation of the generated code, this file is included (via support1.cpp) and linked into the resulting model library.

3. procs.tcl -- contains the Tcl implementation of the function. This is sourced just prior to the model program, but not in global scope so any global variables used by the procedure need to be declared both inside it and out.

These files are stored in the Functions directory of the Simile program files tree. If you wish to build models in both C++ and Tcl, using the same function name, you must include the function definition is both procs.cpp and procs.tcl.

It is generally not a good idea to use global variables in the function definitions, because if the functions are used in more than one place in the model, a value set when running one instance of it may be used when running another instance.

In: Contents >> Working with equations >> User-defined functions