[Fwd: [Modeling] Comments on interaction diagram modeling doc]

[Lin Padgham]

I agree with Misty that agent types are not necessarily known in open
systems, so there we need to use roles.  However AUML should also be
suitable for designing closed agent systems and there I believe we
also need a notion of agent types. So just defining roles is not
enough. 

Possibly it is not necessary to distinguish in interaction diagrams
and we could understand either role or agent type - where the
difference is really to do with granularity and at what level of
detail people wish to express things?  If we do take this approach
though, it may be necessary to address questions around what freedom
designers/implementors have in following a protocol, if they combine
several roles within a single agent. This arises from the fact that
protocols are both a design specification tool, but also a
standardisation mechanism. We may need to address these 2 uses
separately?

Lin

> "Wagner, G.R." wrote:
> 
> > > The UML 2.0 format is effectively <agentName:agentRole>, where you can
> >
> > Why not keep the format <agentName:agentRole/agentType>?
> > This would allow to express Lin's problem of modeling
> > the interaction for shop assistants by using lifelines
> > associated with agentrole/agenttype combinations, like
> > <:customerWelcoming:shopAssistant>.
> >
> > -Gerd
> >
> > ---------------------------------------
> > Gerd Wagner
> > http://tmitwww.tm.tue.nl/staff/gwagner/
> > Dep. Information & Technology
> > Eindhoven University of Technology
> > Email: G.Wagner@tm.tue.nl
> > Phone: (+31 40) 247 26 17
> > Fax: (+31 40) 247 26 12
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Modeling mailing list
> > Modeling@www.fipa.org
> > http://fipa.org/mailman/listinfo/modeling
> 
> Where Lin started out (as I understood it) was with the comment that agent
> interaction protocols more intuitively map to interactions between roles as
> opposed to interactions between agents. This is related directly to the
> late binding issues of agents, I think. AUML is most challenged in the
> areas where agents have little resemblance to objects, as that is where the
> distinctions between AUML and UML2 will be the clearest.
> 
> I do not really see the point in putting a specific named agent into the
> lifeline header, as this defeats the late binding approach. Perhaps we
> could represent the name with respect to the instantiation of the role, in
> the tab in the upper left-hand corner of the UML frame?
> 
> I do see what Lin says with respect to roles possibly being specified in
> the context of an agent type.  However, this should not be true in an open
> agent system -- due again to the dynamic nature of such systems and the
> late binding issues, no agent types are necessarily known. It seems to me
> that someone should  come up with a good and concise definition of "role"
> that we can all agree on, and then discuss how to set it into the context
> of AUML interactions.
> 
> -- Misty
> 
> 
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