At Forio we occasionally look at new modeling languages that could become part of the Simulate platform. We currently support models produced by AnyLogic, Vensim, Excel, iThink/STELLA, and Powersim Studio. We’ve recently been interested in adding a mathematical programming language like R or MATLAB®.

In January 2012 we discovered Julia, a mathematical programming language that’s has received a lot of attention in the modeling community. Julia is web based, multi-core, open source, and runs fast.

Julia can fill a gap in the modeling community. For decades, Excel has been the lingua franca of novice and even many expert modelers because of its ubiquity. However, for complex models with lots of data or highly arrayed data, it makes more sense to use a programmatic syntax offered by a mathematical programming language such as Julia.

We are building on the REPL developed by Julia team at MIT that will let you enter code Julia on one side of the screen, and see your results on the other side of the screen. This software might fill a need for our customers, as well as for Forio in our own modeling efforts.

We’re exploring creating tools for developers who want to use Julia, such as using Forio’s expertise in user interface design to create an easy to use user interface for the Julia language. And we’re exploring how to make Julia available across multiple cores with advanced features in a web-based or desktop-based software.

Want to try Julia? We’re hosting a free public REPL for people who want to experiment with Julia at julia.forio.com.