JADE Tutorial and Primer - Université de Montréal

This tutorial concentrates on the basic features of Jade and explains these in detail with many simple examples showing what works and what doesn't. JADETutorialandPrimer JeanVaucherandAmbroiseNcho Dep.d'informatique UniversitédeMontréal September2003 updatedapril2004 ThisprimerisaimedattheJadebeginner.ItconcentratesonthebasicfeaturesofJadeandexplainstheseindetailwithlotsofsimpleexamplesshowingwhatworksandwhatdoesn't.ThusitisausefulintroductiontomoreadvancedtutorialsaswellasJade'sofficialdocumentation. ZippedversionofPrimerandexamples -JadeHome- Index Introduction Installingthesoftware Yourfirstprograms[passingarguments] ParallelismandBehaviours Agentcommunication[Sectionaddedaugust2004] UsingtheDF Complexbehaviours Usingontologies GraphicalInterfaces Mobility Jade(JaveAgentDevelopmentEnvironment)isarobustandefficientenvironmentfordistributed"agent"systems.ItwasdeveloppedinItalyjointlybyCSELT(CentroStudieLaboratoriTelecommunicazioni)inconjunctionwiththeComputer EngineeringGroupoftheUniversity ofParma.JadefollowstheFIPAstandards[Note:CSELTisnowknownasTelecommItaliaLab(tilab)]. TheofficialwebsiteforJADEis:http://jade.cselt.it WeusedJadefortheprogrammingassignmentsinacourseonAgenttechnologyattheUniversiteofMontreal(ift6802).Itprovedtobeagoodchoicebecause: ithadalltheagentfeaturesthatweneeded(andmore) communicationbetweenstudent"agents"runningonvariousworkstations onthenetworkwastrivialtodo itwasefficientandtolerantoffaultyprogramming itfollowedFIPAstandards theusergroupisveryactiveandimplementorstypicallyrespond toproblemswithin24hours [HatsofftoFabioBellifemineandGiovanniCaire] Onthenegativeside,JADEmaybedisappointingtoAIpeoplebecauseitlacksmechanismsfor"intelligence",planningorreasoning.However,theJAVAbasemeansthatJADEcaninteractrelativelyeasilywithJavaimplementationsofPrologorExpertsystems(JESS). Afterdabblingwithvariousagenttoolkits,ourimpressionisthatJadeembodiesextensiveexperienceintheimplementationoflargeAgentsystems.Furthermore,itisfreesoftware.[Note:thiscontrastsfavourablywithourpainfulandexpensiveexperiencewithJack.] However,thismaturityleadstodifficultyforlearners.ManyJadefeaturesdealwithsophisticatedmattersthatbeginnerseitherdon'tneedordon'tunderstand.Similarly,mostdocumentation(reportsandJavadoc)issuitableforexperiencedusersbutquiteinadequateforlearners.Theexamplesthatcomewiththedistributionarefairlylonganddesignedtoshowoffadvancedfeatures,nottoillustrateJadebasics. [Note:indecember2003,theJadeteamfinallyaddedatutorial-alongthesamelinesasourprimer-whichaddressestheseshortcomings] Thesepagesconcentrateonthebasicsandwemakeitapointtousesmallexampleswhichgrowprogressively.LongerexamplesattheendoftheprimerwerewrittenbyA.NCho. Othertutorials OthershaveputJadetutorialsonthewebandthroughoutyouwillfindlinkstoothermaterial.Animportantcontributor(apartfromJade'sauthors)isProf.DavidGrimshawwhocreatedasetofpagesdevotedtoAgents,JadeandFipainsupportofhislecturesatRyerson.Inparticular,weheartilyrecommendhis Jadetutorialswhichweusedtogetstarted.Othersitesinclude: JadeProgrammingForBeginners,AnewtutorialbyGiovanniCaire,TILABJadeSupportTeam. LastFall(2003),OwenCliffe,attheUniversityofBath,developped tutorialpages withaplansimilartomineinsupportofhisagentcourse.Hint:gototheTableofContents atthebottomofhispage. JadeTutorial (.doc) (.htm) fromGerstnerLaboratory,Czechoslovakia Thistutorialgivessimpleclearexamplesonstartingagents,usingtheDF,sendingandreceivingmessagesandusingontologies;butitdoesn'tcoverBehaviours,GUIsandmobility.TheHTMLversionisn'tveryreadableonourbrowsers,wesuggestthatyoudownloadtheWordversion. MartinGriss(UCSC)andRobertR.Kessler(Utah)createdahalf-daytutorialonAgentswithJadeexampleswhichgivesagoodoverviewofthelanguage. SteveWillmottwhenhewasatEPFLalsocreatedsomeWWWpagesonJadeandagents. URL:ZippedversionofPrimerandexamples Email:vaucher"at"iro.umontreal.ca version0.9(Sept12,2003) updatedAugust2004 Jade3.2