Mobile Agent Execution in Jigsaw

[I wish I had mutliple life, and rather than comming with some
answers, I  would be able to come with code]

Steven R. Farley writes:
 > First of all, I'd like to say that the Jigsaw design, IMHO, is quite elegant.  The ability to 
 > create custom resoure types and execute an arbitrary implementation of GET, PUT, etc. is very 
 > powerful.

Thanks,

 > I am particularly interested in support for mobile agent execution, i.e. Java classes securely 
 > roaming from server to server, perfoming some arbitrary task on behalf of a user.  I've noticed 
 > in the httpSecurityManager code that support for agent execution is planned.  I have some 
 > questions regarding this capability:

The current httpdSecurityManager is broken, it is a remainder of some
old version of Jigsaw which did support PUT'able agents (you would PUT
a Agent, which would be executed server side). This first thing
(Agent) seems appealing although not as interesting (at this point) as
what follows...

 > - How far along is the design of the agent architecture?

Pretty near: one of the goals in designing Resources was to be able to
replicate them around the world, so that you would be able to
replicate the thing that *compute* content, rather then the content
itself. 
In brief, pickle() a resource to a socket, you'll get an
agent. Implement a small inter-server protocol to replicate resources,
you'll get a really powerfull system.

 > - Will it consist of interfaces so that we can implement our own versions of agent mobility and 
 > execution that adhere to a standard API?

Come with suggestion, I'll be glad to dicuss them.

 > - Will you accept suggestions and/or assistance?

Yes, this is the purpose of this mailing list

 > Although the concept of agents roaming the Web is scary, it will happen eventually.  Java is 
 > the perfect environment for this and within a couple of years, according to JavaSoft's press 
 > releases, it will be embedded within every major operating system.  This is a good opportunity 
 > for a reputable organization, such as the W3C, to provide a secure, standardized agent 
 > framework/architecture for the Internet.  If anybody is interested, there are some interesting 
 > papers written for the Joint W3C/OMG Workshop on Distributed Objects and Mobile Code at 
 > http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/OOP/9606_Workshop/submissions/accept.  


BTW, you should also check IBM's Aglet stuff (I didn't have time to do
it myself yet).

Anselm.

Received on Friday, 14 June 1996 19:25:19 UTC