Alex,
On the specific topic you mentioned (compare and constrast ABM/IBM to
classical models), I suggest you might include the paper by
Lorenz Fahse, Christian Wissel, and Volker Grimm
"Reconciling classical and individual-based approaches in theoretical
population ecology: a protocol for extracting population
parameters from individual-based models" published in American
Naturalist 152:838-852 (Dec. 1998) available through Jstor.
Volker Grimm and colleagues have published alot more on this topic
since then, but that paper lays out a good framework for the topic
you mentioned. Note that Eli Meir has been working on a whole
book on this topic as well, based around what he has learned from
developing Ecobeaker - I don't think the book is out yet though.
Regarding what pre-dated Swarm, you should realize that Swarm has
been around in one form or another for a long time - I first saw
a demo of it when we invited Dave Hiebeler here for a visit in
mid-1994, at which time it was still at such a stage that we decided
for the ATLSS project to develop our own C++ code.
Good luck preparing for the exams!
Best regards,
Lou Gross
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology