AUTHOR=Wils Stefan , De Schutter Erik TITLE=STEPS: modeling and simulating complex reaction-diffusion systems with Python JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroinformatics VOLUME=3 YEAR=2009 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroinformatics/articles/10.3389/neuro.11.015.2009 DOI=10.3389/neuro.11.015.2009 ISSN=1662-5196 ABSTRACT=

We describe how the use of the Python language improved the user interface of the program STEPS. STEPS is a simulation platform for modeling and stochastic simulation of coupled reaction-diffusion systems with complex 3-dimensional boundary conditions. Setting up such models is a complicated process that consists of many phases. Initial versions of STEPS relied on a static input format that did not cleanly separate these phases, limiting modelers in how they could control the simulation and becoming increasingly complex as new features and new simulation algorithms were added. We solved all of these problems by tightly integrating STEPS with Python, using SWIG to expose our existing simulation code.