Fixed-Time Simulation

[bjkomer]

Partial solution for issue #135
Adding a flag to the simulator allowing the user to force the simulation to run in real-time

sim = model.simulator( fixed_time=True )

Currently works for when the simulator can run faster than real-time, but not yet for the simulator running slower than real-time

[drasmuss]

Reviving this one from the dead 💀

This feels like a nengo_extras thing to me, now that we have that. Basically just a subclass of Simulator with a modified run_steps function, and then people could do nengo_extras.RealtimeSimulator if they want to use it. The fact that this has been sitting around since 2013 I think tells us that it's a niche enough feature that I'd be reluctant to give it a special place in the core reference Simulator.

[tbekolay]

I'm +1 on moving to nengo_extras! It's worth pointing out also that SpiNNaker and Nengo GUI also offer ways to run in real-time or pretty close to realtime, so it is probably desired, though yeah, not by people using the reference simulator. It would be nice to consolidate the Nengo GUI throttling with this implementation, but that's not critical.

@bjkomer do you want to move this to nengo_extras or do you mind if I do it?

[drasmuss]

I migrated this to nengo-extras (nengo/nengo-extras#85), so closing this one now. The end of a 6 year journey!