Design history of a cell kinetics simulation language.

The field of cell kinetics relates to the movement and proliferation of cells through their generative cycle and to how this cycle is affected by chemotherapy treatment. CELLSIM is a discrete, digital simulation language for modeling this process. The language is interpretive, with the interpreter written in FORTRAN. It has been implemented on a wide variety of computer systems. The language features dynamic memory allocation, arithmetic string manipulation, and the capability of generating random variates from a number of probability distributions. The language has continued to evolve as the needs and desires of cancer researchers have been discovered. Its early use was only in experimental environments, but it is now being used to prescribe actual chemotherapy treatments.