Where do we stand with high gain FEL simulations?

Computer technology improvements have allowed for more complete and detailed free electron laser simulations, yet the demands of the large number of new experiments and proposed projects has outpaced the capability and availability of present codes. This paper, based on a talk given at the conference of these proceedings, presents a brief assessment of Free Electron Laser (FEL) codes, their availability and features, as well as some opinions on what direction the FEL code community should take for the near future. The discussion of FEL codes is restricted here to ones for high gain amplifiers: no codes for oscillators, waveguides or exotic configurations are considered