Business Week (2/14) has an article on software agents,
a term covering diverse approaches to automation and interaction.
The new commercial generation seems very similar to macro
processors (e.g., QuicKeys for Macs) that capture your actions
as editable scripts. One agent does the work of 20 administrators
in distributing and collecting wage-review information for 13,000
salespeople under 1,200 managers. However, such agents are easily
confused by unexpected conditions. [John W. Verity.]
General Magic's Telescript agents are programs that can be
handed off from one Telescript "place" or "engine" to another.
(Places are themselves Telescript programs.) Only the
interpreters can manipulate memory, not the scripts themselves.
Each agent includes an encrypted owner/authority code and class,
plus a "permit" that limits its lifetime, size, resources,
and capabilities (including the ability to move to another place).
Each Telescript engine can impose or negotiate further limits,
and is responsible for deleting expired agents. Agents may
themselves check the identities and capabilities of other
agents with which they interact. [Luis Valente