TK QML A Scripting strongTstrong ool for Building Agen ts.pdfVIP

TKQML: A Scripting To ol for Building Agents R. Scott Cost, Ian Sob oro, Jeegar Lakhani, Tim Finin, Ethan Miller, and Charles Nicholas Computer Science and Electrical Engineering University of Maryland Baltimore County Baltimore, Maryland 21250 frcost1, ian, jlakha1, nin, elm, nicholas g@cs.umb Abstract. Tcl/Tk is an attractive language for the design of intelli- gent agents b ecause it allows the quick construction of prototyp es and user interfaces; new scripts can easily b e b ound at runtime to resp ond to events; and execution state is encapsulated by the interpreter, which helps in agent migration. However, a system of intelligent agents must share a common language for communicating requests and knowledge. We have integrated K QML (Knowledge Query Manipulation Language), one such standard language, into Tcl/Tk. The resulting system, called TKQML, provides several b enets to those building intelligent agent systems. First, TKQML allows easy integration of existing to ols which have Tcl/Tk interfaces with an agent system by using Tcl to move in- formation b etween KQML and the application. Second, TKQML is an excellent language with which to build agents, allowing on-the- y sp eci- cation of message handlers and construction of graphical interfaces. This pap er describ es the implementation of TK QML, and discusses its use in our intelligent agent system for information retrieval. 1 Intro duction In the past few years, the explosive growth of the Internet has allowed the con- struction of \virtual systems containing hundreds or thousands of individual, relatively inexp ensive computers. The agent