Highlights

Let's face it: There are many Petri net tools available today. What advantages can Renew offer?

  • Renew is written in Java and will run on any machine where a Java virtual machine is available. This includes MacOS, several flavours of Unix such as Linux, Windows, and many others.
  • Similar to classes and objects, reference nets separate the concepts of nets and net instances, thereby allowing object-based modeling on the net level.
  • Reference nets allow communication between nets via synchronous channels. This provides a powerful abstraction mechanism.
  • The inscription language of reference nets is closely related to Java, but care has been taken to keep the formalism in line with conventional high-level Petri nets.
  • All Java classes can be accessed from reference nets without restrictions. Java code can access net instances just like ordinary Java objects. Nets can implement methods and interfaces, such that a seamless cooperation of Java and nets is achieved.
  • The simulation engine is capable of true concurrency and supports symmetric multi-processor architectures. Transitions with an extended firing time are executed in the background concurrently with other transitions, if required.
  • Purely sequential simulation is supported, too, and extends the basic net formalism with clear arcs, inhibitor arcs, and timed arcs.
  • The object-oriented graphical user interface is simple and extensible.
  • Renew is available free of charge.
  • Renew is available with source code in the spirit of the Open Source Campaign.

For which applications can you use Renew?

  • Rapid prototyping. The simple user interface and the expressiveness of the inscription language will ease the development. The close integration with Java allows you to choose the appropriate modeling level for each part of the prototype.
  • Workflow modeling. Here the openness of Renew will be useful. Ultimate simulation speed is not required and the true concurrency simulation allows the execution of workflows within Renew.
  • Object-based modeling. Net instances support objects on the level of nets.
  • Agent-based modeling. Net instances can be considered as pro-active objects (agents) that use sensors and actors (synchronous channels) to communicate with their environment and can be moved around (as tokens).
  • Experiments with net formalisms. Renew is available with source and can serve as a platform to integrate and test new net constructs quickly.

UHH, Inf
Impressum

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Last modified: Fri Jan 5 11:42:51 2024 +0100 by webmaster@renew.de