REVIEWa) b) c)Fig. 6 Combin<strong>at</strong>ions <strong>of</strong> cyclical surfaces for g na) b) c)Fig 7 Combin<strong>at</strong>ions <strong>of</strong> cyclical surfaces for g bReferences[1] OLEJNIKOVA, T.: Straight-lines Spiral-rotary Planes (in Slovak), Proc. <strong>of</strong> 26. konference o geometrii a pocitacove grafice, 2006,Nove Mesto na Morave, CR, 2006, p. 15–28, ISBN 80-7040-902-9.[2] OLEJNIKOVA, T.: Straight-lines Spiral-rotary Planes II (in Slovak), Proc. <strong>of</strong> 6th Intern<strong>at</strong>ional Conference APLIMAT 2007,Br<strong>at</strong>islava, 2007, p. 231–236, ISBN 978-80-969562-4-1[3] KOHOUT, V.: Differential Geometry (in Czech), SNTL-Publishers <strong>of</strong> Technical Liter<strong>at</strong>ure, Praha, 1971.[4] GRANAT, L., SECHOVSKY, H.: Computer Graphics (in Slovak), SNTL – Publishers <strong>of</strong> Technical Liter<strong>at</strong>ure, Br<strong>at</strong>islava, 197476 ● COMMUNICATIONS 3/2008
BOOK REVIEWKavicka, A., Klima, V., Adamko, N.:Agent-oriented Simul<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> Traffic Nodes,ISBN 80-8070-477-5The edition house EDIS released a very interesting (and for <strong>the</strong> Slovak and/or Czech speakingpeople very important) book titled Agentovo orientovana simulacia dopravnych uzlov (Agent-orientedSimul<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> Traffic Nodes). The authors are A. Kavicka, V. Klima a N. Adamko and <strong>the</strong> book iswritten in Slovakian. The first phrase presented <strong>at</strong> <strong>the</strong> last page <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> book cover can be transl<strong>at</strong>edas follows: “The subject <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> monograph is methodology <strong>of</strong> developing really applicable <strong>simul<strong>at</strong>ion</strong>models <strong>of</strong> complex service systems, especially models <strong>of</strong> traffic nodes as systems with domin<strong>at</strong>ingor prevailing function to reloc<strong>at</strong>e elements.” Th<strong>at</strong> st<strong>at</strong>ement well characterizes <strong>the</strong> contents <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>book. Really, <strong>the</strong> rich concluding chapter <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> book concerns <strong>the</strong> <strong>railway</strong> traffic and we candisclose th<strong>at</strong> <strong>the</strong> whole contents <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> book arose under <strong>the</strong> influence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> demands <strong>of</strong> <strong>railway</strong>transport, though it can be applied as a <strong>set</strong> <strong>of</strong> efficient stimuli outside <strong>the</strong> <strong>railway</strong> systems <strong>simul<strong>at</strong>ion</strong>,too – <strong>the</strong> oper<strong>at</strong>ion transport in production systems, <strong>the</strong> road transport and <strong>the</strong> dynamics in sea portsand container terminals can be presented as examples.In <strong>the</strong> introductory chapter, a system analysis <strong>of</strong> marshalling yard is presented. Although onecould view it as a certain preparing to <strong>the</strong> last chapter <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> book, <strong>the</strong> essence <strong>of</strong> this chapter is topresent a more or less elementary r<strong>at</strong>ional steps th<strong>at</strong> have to be present before realizing anyapplicable <strong>simul<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> model: from <strong>the</strong> pedagogical point <strong>of</strong> view, <strong>the</strong> marshalling yard servesa certain represent<strong>at</strong>ive <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r systems th<strong>at</strong> could be studied by using <strong>simul<strong>at</strong>ion</strong>, a represent<strong>at</strong>iveth<strong>at</strong> needs no special pr<strong>of</strong>essional knowledge <strong>of</strong> a branch (almost every expert in production, design,management and o<strong>the</strong>r branches <strong>of</strong> technology knows something on trains, wagons, st<strong>at</strong>ions andlinks among <strong>the</strong>m, so th<strong>at</strong> he understands even in case he is not a pr<strong>of</strong>essional in traffic problems).The second chapter contains an analysis <strong>of</strong> general notions rel<strong>at</strong>ed to <strong>simul<strong>at</strong>ion</strong>. The contents <strong>of</strong>this chapter is important not only th<strong>at</strong> it forms a logical and semantic base for understanding <strong>the</strong>following chapters (let us accept th<strong>at</strong> <strong>the</strong> terms like <strong>simul<strong>at</strong>ion</strong>, model, systems and th<strong>at</strong> derivedfrom <strong>the</strong>m are understood in a lot <strong>of</strong> public<strong>at</strong>ions over <strong>the</strong> world in a r<strong>at</strong>her chaotic way); it appearsas a good stimulus independently <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> reader’s pr<strong>of</strong>essional orient<strong>at</strong>ion and can be fruitful als<strong>of</strong>or <strong>the</strong> readers whose interest is e.g. production, services and ecology. In a similar way, <strong>the</strong> bookoverpasses <strong>the</strong> transport domain frontiers also in <strong>the</strong> following chapter, which presents and welldeclares <strong>the</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>essional contents and importance <strong>of</strong> (computing) agents, including <strong>the</strong>ir classific<strong>at</strong>ionand near rel<strong>at</strong>ion to computer <strong>simul<strong>at</strong>ion</strong>. Simul<strong>at</strong>ion leads to problems <strong>of</strong> synchroniz<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong>agents, which concerns two aspects: modeling <strong>of</strong> agents functioning during <strong>the</strong> same simul<strong>at</strong>ed(Newtonian) time, and synchroniz<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> computing with visual present<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> its st<strong>at</strong>e, namelywith anim<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> <strong>simul<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> models, in real time.The fifth chapter is a certain focus <strong>of</strong> a lot <strong>of</strong> work th<strong>at</strong> <strong>the</strong> authors undertook in programmingand implementing <strong>simul<strong>at</strong>ion</strong> s<strong>of</strong>tware. It is known th<strong>at</strong> <strong>the</strong> results <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir effort were applied inSwitzerland and China, i.e. th<strong>at</strong> <strong>the</strong> s<strong>of</strong>tware forms a more or less universal package <strong>of</strong> <strong>simul<strong>at</strong>ion</strong>and anim<strong>at</strong>ion routines, blocks and modules, composed <strong>of</strong> more or less autonomous agents. For<strong>the</strong> implement<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m, <strong>the</strong> authors applied programming language Pascal, which is a populartool embedded in an editing and debugging environment, but which has never been oriented to <strong>the</strong>agent programming paradigm. In Pascal, <strong>the</strong> authors had to program all wh<strong>at</strong> is essential foragents, especially everything rel<strong>at</strong>ed <strong>the</strong>ir initi<strong>at</strong>ive and dynamics, and <strong>the</strong>y decided to use Petri netsas tools for this purpose. This chapter reflects <strong>the</strong> hardest work <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> authors and may appear mostdifficult for many readers, but one can quiet <strong>the</strong>m not to be disturbed, as <strong>the</strong>re are programmingtools th<strong>at</strong> allow elude Petri nets. Beside <strong>the</strong> described chapters, <strong>the</strong> book contains 40 page appendix<strong>of</strong> Pascal source code; <strong>the</strong> readers knowing Pascal language will surely appreci<strong>at</strong>e it.Pr<strong>of</strong>. Eugene KindlerCOMMUNICATIONS 3/2008 ●77
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