Running the Simulation

00:00 Now that the processes available in the theater have been defined, as well as the route a moviegoer will take, it’s time to set up a function to actually run the simulation. Define a new function called run_theater(), and with this, you’ll pass in the env (environment) and the num_employees (number of employees) that you have. So, the num_cashiers (number of cashiers), the num_servers (number of servers), and then the num_ushers (number of ushers).

00:24 You can then create a theater, and this will be an instance of a Theater, which also has the env, the num_cashiers, num_servers, and the num_ushers.

00:40 The manager also notes that when they open, there tends to be a line of moviegoers waiting and ready to go! On average, this is about three people, so if you want to start off with three moviegoers, you can do this with a for loop.

00:53 So, for moviegoer in range(3): to run this three times. You’ll say env.process(go_to_movies()), pass in the env, the moviegoer, and the theater.

01:10 Now, to address additional moviegoers arriving on their own time, you can turn this function into a generator that will loop forever. The manager has informed you that moviegoers tend to arrive to the theater on average every 12 seconds—or one fifth of a minute.

01:26 So you can do something like while True: and you’ll yield env.timeout(), and since 12 seconds is a fifth of a minute, you can say something like 0.20.

01:38 And this will increment the moviegoer by 1, so moviegoer += 1, and send another moviegoer to the movies. So go_to_movies(), pass in the env, the moviegoer, and the theater.

01:56 And that’s all there is to it! In the next lesson, you’re going to set up a function to calculate the average wait times so you can see how each simulation performs and compare them.