A language for the rapid prototyping of mobile evolving agents

Abstract

This article presents SAL, a general purpose scripting language for the rapid development of distributed software agents seamlessly embedded in a visual environment. Integrated facilities for dynamic visualization provide sample but powerful means for debugging and domain-oriented animation. SAL agents are arranged on a set of 2D worksheets which can be distributed over different machines. An agent's program is defined by the means of a table specifying a set of state transition rules with a condition and a sequence of actions each. Beyond basic computation and communication, actions can dynamically modify the agent's depiction, its program, and spawn arbitrary processes. A couple of examples demonstrate SAL's applicability in various domains like electronic systems design and process management.