Appendix 5. Glossary

Agent name server (ANS)

An agent name server is a process which has in charge the identification (and management of addresses) of the various repositories. It is identified by an URL. In CO₄, the ANS also manages the data of the repositories.

ANS

See agent name server.

API

Application Programming Interface. A set of primitives which allow to manipulate the implementation of the TROEPS model.

Call for comments (CFC)

A call for comments is used by the group repository to gather the answers to the proposal sent to each subscriber. The CFC will be accepted, rejected or challenged, depending of each individual answer.

CFC

See call for comments.

CGI (script)

CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is a technique for generating dynamic HTML pages in a HTTP server. A program called CGI script is launched by the HTTP server when particular URLs are requested and its output is a HTML page which is redirected on the server output.

CO₄

CO₄ is a system and protocol allowing several users to modify concurrently a repository. It modifies the repository only when all its subscribers have decided to do so.

Group repository

A group repository is a repository that is fully automated and that is meant to contain the consensual representation among its subscribers.

HTML

Hyper-text mark-up language. A format for encoding hypertext documents so that they are visible and accessible through a network. HTML is based on the SGML (standard generalised mark-up language) syntax.

HTTP

Hyper-text transmission protocol. The protocol used for dealing with HTML documents through TCP/IP networks.

Initiative

An initiative is a query issued by the current repository to its group repository.

IP

Stands for Internet protocol.

KAPI

KQML application programming interface.

KQML

Knowledge query and manipulation language.

Log

The log is the set of proposals that have been accepted in the group repository but have not been introduced into the current repository for various reasons.

Mailbox

A mailbox stores the set of messages received by a repository. It is stored by the ANS when the repository is shut down.

Proposal

A proposal is a query that has been sent by the group repository, to be accepted, rejected or challenged.

Repository

A repository is a container of the description of the artefact to be built. In the following, the repository is a running process.

Subscriber

A subscriber is a repository subscribing to a group repository.

Surrogate

A surrogate is a number identifying in a unique manner the message exchanged between repositories (the numbers are not unique, but the context -- the kind of message and who issued it warrant the identification of the message).

Troeps

Has no particular meaning.

URL

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address by which the documents are identified in the World-wide web.

WWW

Acronym of World-wide web.

X-terminal

A "window" of the X-window system.