Agent-Oriented Programming Idioms

Agent-oriented programming is a new paradigm for conceptualizing a computational system (Shoham, 1993), differing primarily from object-oriented programming in the inclusion of mental state in each of the processes. This paper offers two special-case versions (or idioms) of agent-oriented programming that encapsulates master-slave and peer-peer type interactions in simple protocols. These two idioms are demonstrated with a distributed version of the popular learning system ID3 (Quinlan, 1986) and with a hybrid system for studying ant behavior. 1. Introduction New programming paradigms bring fresh perspectives and tools to computation. Shoham (1993) has identified a promising new paradigm termed "agent-oriented" programming. Similar to object-oriented programming, it offers a way of conceptualizing the role of different computational units either within the same computer or distributed across a network. This new paradigm lays the groundwork for a view of computing in which the state o..