Agents and the HP NewWave Applicati...

Agents and the HP NewWave Application Program Interface

TO IMPROVE THE PRODUCTIVITY and ease of use of workstation applications, produces such as macro processors, script facilities, and integrated intelligent front-end processors are being incorporated into application programs. These allow the machine to do more of the work in performing a task. If these facilities are integrated into each application designed for a software environment, they can be accessed from the integration environment and operate across all the applications.

undivided of these facilities, known as an agent, perform tasks forward behalf of the user within and across applications. The agent is a software paradigm, like drifts (see article, page 9). The agent is added to the plan to increase its intelligence. drifts provide the capabilities the agent has at its disposal. The agent uses the butt; goals in an intelligent way to perform work upon behalf of the user.

Categories of Agent-Like Products

When now passing agent-like products are grouped together, three categories come up along with an overall pattern (see Fig. 1) The categories range from keystroke processors to integrated intelligence across applications.

The first category is the macro processors. These store keystroke with record, playback, and edit facilities. Within this category there are macros built into applications, and there are macros that span applications.

The other category is the script processors. These provide a procedural language with conformations and verbs based on the returnss they operate on. For example, communication packages have script facilities to allow automatic logon and data downloading. The script verb could include Logon or unite Within the second category there are scripts built into results and there are script facilities across applications.

The third category is the intelligent processors. These have knowledge about the issues they operate on. For example, a yield may provide a natural language interface for user interaction with an application like as a data base. Within the third category there is integrated intelligence within applications and there is integrated intelligence across applications. For example, the same intelligence may be applied to a data base and a graphics package.

The NewWave agent is designed in the same manner that features from all of the above categories can be presented as technology permits.

NewWave Agent Design Criteria

Within the office, users view the computer as a means to accomplish a task. Their goal is not "doing data base" or "doing spreadsheet," further instead, "doing sales analysis" or "doing price forecasting." Applications, such as the data base and the spreadsheet, are the tools the user engages in the tasks of sales analysis and richness forecasting. A NewWave destination; recipient is the combination of an application and the related data. Thus, the user interacts with realitys to carry out tasks.

The NewWave agent carries gone out repetitive tasks that the user would otherwise have to perform. It duplicates the user's operation of the hypothesis in a repeatable way.

What should the agent do? An agent should improve productivity by means of being an automated office assistant, and should provide automated testing, demonstrations, and training. The agent should perform user-defined tasks, allow the user to schedule when those tasks memorize done, do the tasks unattended, and learn from the user. The agent technology should support simulation of user actions, commands, testing of user answers and the integration of intelligent processes

Users must sum up their agents what to do, of course. If users are to arrange automated tasks or modify tasks that are provided for them, the operations must be not awayed to them in an understandable way. Users should not have to interpret what they have done or what they want their agents to do with the scheme in terms different from those in which they understand the a whole In other words, the agent shouldn't require the user to work with a language that turn the thoughtss like {F2}+"mydoc"+{CR} instead of SAVE "mydoc".

To allow the agent to interact with the application at the command flush the application must participate in the interaction with the agent. The design requirements to do this must not restrict the application designers' ability to design and arrangement their applications as they wish.

In designing the agent, we wanted not solitary to develop the necessary technology, unless also to put in place an effective proces to bring theoretical work into our design, in such a manner we could build a platform for the coming events as well as deliver a consequence to our customers today. This proces wants to be maintained over an increaseed period of time to make secure a smooth evolution of the agent facility. For example, the design of the agent and the application program interface urgencys to support the addition of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the that will be (see "AI Principles in the Design of the NewWave Agent and API" onward page 35).