BKAGNUNL.RVW   960716
 
"Agents Unleashed: A Public Domain Look at Agent Technology", Peter Wayner,
1995, 0-12-738765-X
%A   Peter Wayner pcw@access.digex.com
%C   1300 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill, MA   02167
%D   1995
%G   0-12-738765-X
%I   Academic Press Professional
%O   +1-617-232-0500 +1-800-3131277 app@acad.com
%P   358
%T   "Agents Unleashed: A Public Domain Look at Agent Technology"
 
Network agents got cheated.  Just as agency was beginning to grab some
interest, along came Java and hogged everybody's attention.  Oh, well, Java
applets owe a lot to agent ideas themselves.
 
Wayner has provided a good overview of the ideas and concepts that were being
examined under the agent banner.  These had to be culled from a wide variety of
sources: one of the possible reasons that agency didn't absorb curiosity was
that it took notions from such disparate fields as distributed computing,
artificial intelligence, and even computer virus research.
 
This is not, however, a book to convince one of the need for agents.  The
examples of possible application leave one objecting that this is already being
done without agent technology.  In addition, the use of LISP and TCL, while
academically interesting, put the work somewhat outside the mainstream of
software development.
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996   BKAGNUNL.RVW   960716

======================
roberts@decus.ca           rslade@vcn.bc.ca           rslade@vanisl.decus.ca
         "Lucien, you got some 'splainin' to do!"  - Double Exposure
Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER)