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Re: Would a code generator from dynamic systems be feasible and useful?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg60139] Re: Would a code generator from dynamic systems be feasible and useful?
• From: David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
• Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 03:02:02 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <dfbehm$ilp$1@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Ivan Martinez wrote:
> 	Hello everybody,
> 	I have developed a code generator from dynamic systems represented as
> block diagrams:
> http://dslib.sourceforge.net/
> 	Right now I'm making a study of how it would be possible to adapt such
> code generator to programs like Mathematica, etc., and
> whether it would be useful. The problem is that I have serious doubts
> about it with Mathematica. Let me explain you why.
> 	AFAIK, there isn't any Simulink-like application for Mathematica,
> rather libraries of tools for control analysis. Since there isn't any
> Simulink, there isn't any equivalent to its ".mdl" files to represent
> dynamic systems. And therefore, dynamyc systems are defined in
> Mathematica language without any specific form. And the difficulty is,
> that it seems too complex to parse a Mathematica program to make the
> block diagram of a dynamic system from it.
> 	It also seems that Mathematica can't perform online analysis. I mean,
> one usually generates code from a dynamic system to execute that code in
> realtime in some hardware system. But I don't think Mathematica can
> monitor such execution with "realtime" plotting or parameter tweaking. I
> haven't found any driver for any hardware input or output, either.
> 	Please correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you in advance.
> 	Ivan Martinez
> 
Hello,

Maybe you should think in terms of having a Mathematica program that 
reads in and parses a file describing a control system (using your 
favourite syntax) and then produces block diagrams, executes it, etc. 
etc. Using the raw Mathematica language to describe a control system 
might not be a good idea as you point out.

Mathematica programs can easily access C and Java using MathLink and 
J/Link, so you could interface your code to other hardware in either of 
those languages (bearing in mind that you would still be in user-mode 
wrt the operating system, of course).

Mathematica has recently become a lot more visually dynamic with the 
introduction of GUIKit. The Super Widget Package (available from my 
site) builds on this and greatly simplifies and extends this 
flexibility, so I am sure you could build a wide range of interfaces to 
your project.

David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk