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--- start [2008/05/14 10:26] – added tvcutsem
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 ~~NOTOC~~
-Welcome to our website on Ambient-Oriented Programming, a novel programming paradigm geared towards promoting and programming spontaneous interactions between different mobile and/or embedded devices.
+[[http://ambienttalk.googlecode.com|{{:at:fixed_atlogo.png?80 }}]] Ambient-Oriented Programming is a paradigm for programming peer-to-peer mobile applications. This page is also the home of AmbientTalk, our research programming language for mobile peer-to-peer applications.
-{{:at:atlogo.jpg?80  |:at:atlogo.jpg}} This webpage is also the home of AmbientTalk, our experimental programming language to develop applications for software running on mobile ad hoc networks. The current implementation of AmbientTalk is relatively stable. The best way to get started is to [[at:download|download]] the language and to read the [[at:tutorial:tutorial|tutorial]].
 <note>
-AmbientTalk is now [[http://code.google.com/p/ambienttalk|open-sourced]] on Google Code!
-{{ http://code.google.com/hosting/images/code_sm.png?100 |http://code.google.com/p/ambienttalk}}
+AmbientTalk is [[https://gitlab.soft.vub.ac.be/ambienttalk/ambienttalk/wikis/home |open-sourced]] on GitLab under an [[Wp>MIT_License|MIT License]]!
+[[https://gitlab.soft.vub.ac.be/ambienttalk/ambienttalk/wikis/home|{{ :at:gitlab.png?150 }}]]
 </note>
+  * Read the [[at:tutorial:tutorial|tutorial]] or [[http://code.google.com/p/ambienttalk/wiki/EssenceOfAmbientTalk|the essence of AmbientTalk in 10 steps]].
+  * Start programming with our [[https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/17635-ambienttalk | Intellij IDEA plugin]] for AmbientTalk. Note that the plugin already includes the AmbientTalk standard library.
+   * You can build your own AmbientTalk distribution by downloading the different source code project from gitlab [[https://gitlab.soft.vub.ac.be/ambienttalk/ambienttalk-monorepo |here]].
 ====== What is AmbientTalk about? ======
-Ambient-Oriented programming is a programming paradigm whose properties are derived from the characteristics of hardware platforms for mobile computing. Mobile hardware devices are often provided with wireless networks facilities, allowing them to engage in collaboration with their environment. However, the autonomous nature of these devices as well as the volatile connections over their wireless infrastructure has its repercussions on the software that employs them. The basic assumption of the Ambient-Oriented Programming paradigm is that languages should incorporate possible network failures at the heart of their programming model.
+Ambient-Oriented programming is a paradigm geared towards mobile computing. Mobile hardware (such as cell phones) is mostly equipped with wireless networking, allowing it to collaborate with nearby devices in its environment. However, because wireless network links are volatile (basically: when devices move out of wireless range, the connection drops), network failures occur much more frequently than in traditional networks. The basic assumption of the Ambient-Oriented Programming paradigm is that languages should incorporate network failures at the heart of their programming model, and not treat them as "exceptions".
-From this observation, several characteristics of programming languages can be derived. Our own experimental language, AmbientTalk, differs from most traditional languages because:
+Our own experimental language, AmbientTalk, differs from most traditional languages because:
   * It employs a purely //event-driven// concurrency framework, founded on actors.
-  * It abandons the RPC abstraction in favor of //asynchronous, non-blocking// message passing. Because the system automatically buffers such messages while the receiver of the message is disconnected, the programmer can abstract over temporary network failures //by default//!
+  * It abandons the RPC abstraction in favor of //asynchronous, non-blocking// message passing. Because the system automatically buffers such messages while the receiver of the message is disconnected, the programmer can make abstraction from temporary network failures //by default//.
-  * It has built-in programming language constructs for objects to //discover// one another in the local ad hoc network. Peer-to-peer //service discovery// is built into the language.
+  * It has built-in programming language constructs for objects to discover one another in the local ad hoc network. Peer-to-peer //service discovery// is built into the language.
-  * It features a dynamic OO kernel language built upon the principles of prototype-based programming. More importantly, the kernel language is reflective and hence extensible from within the language itself.
+  * It features a dynamic OO kernel language built upon the principles of prototype-based programming (based on Scheme, Self and Smalltalk). The kernel language supports reflection using [[http://bracha.org/mirrors.pdf|mirrors]], which provide access to an extensive metaobject protocol, making the language extensible from within itself.
+  * The language syntax derives primarily from the 'curly brace' family of languages, but it mixes in the keyworded messaging syntax from Smalltalk as well. This, together with AmbientTalk's lightweight block syntax, enables you to easily build your own control structures. Like many other dynamic and functional languages, AmbientTalk embraces the use of blocks to express higher-order, functional patterns.
+  * The current implementation of AmbientTalk embraces the JVM as a platform. It's easy for AmbientTalk programs to use Java libraries, and it's easy for Java objects to use !AmbientTalk as an embedded scripting language. This interaction is safe: even when AmbientTalk objects are "exposed" to the JVM, JVM threads [[http://soft.vub.ac.be/Publications/2007/vub-prog-tr-07-15.pdf|cannot violate]] the concurrency constraints of AmbientTalk's actor model.
-Check out the [[at:introduction|introduction]] to AmbientTalk for a hands-on example showing you the benefits in actual code.
+Check out the [[at:introduction|introduction]] to AmbientTalk for a hands-on example showing you the benefits in actual code. Alternatively, glance at the [[at:byexample|key expressions]] in the language to get a 60-second overview of the language's design and intents.
-AmbientTalk is not our only research artifact. There is also [[crime:introduction|CRIME]], a data-driven programming language which explores the logic programming paradigm to tackle similar coordination issues in mobile ad hoc networks.
+The screencast below shows how to implement a simple echo server for mobile ad hoc networks. It introduces AmbientTalk's support for peer-to-peer service discovery, asynchronous messages, futures and how remote object references are resilient to network failures by default:
+<html>
+<object width="450" height="278"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/4uCb218Cw64&amp;hl=nl_NL&amp;fs=1?color1=0x234900&amp;color2=0x4e9e00&amp;hd=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/4uCb218Cw64&amp;hl=nl_NL&amp;fs=1?color1=0x234900&amp;color2=0x4e9e00&amp;hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="450" height="278"></embed></object>
+</html>
+AmbientTalk is not our only research artifact. We have ported the ideas of Ambient-oriented Programming to Scheme, leading to the [[ischeme:ischeme]] language, and JavaScript. There is also [[crime:introduction|CRIME]], a data-driven programming language which explores the logic programming paradigm to tackle similar coordination issues in mobile ad hoc networks.
+AmbientTalk's [[http://soft.vub.ac.be/Publications/2007/vub-prog-tr-07-16.pdf|mirages]] have inspired the development of [[http://wiki.ecmascript.org/doku.php?id=harmony:proxies|proxies]] in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1R8KGKkDjU|ECMAScript harmony]].
 ====== Contact ======
-The [[http://prog.vub.ac.be/mailman/listinfo/ambienttalk|AmbientTalk mailing list]], for questions and general information on AmbientTalk: {{:1af3bb.gif?220x18}}. If you want to contact any one of us personally, please see the [[people|People pages]] for personal contact details.
+The [[http://soft.vub.ac.be/mailman/listinfo/ambienttalk|AmbientTalk mailing list]], for questions and general information on AmbientTalk: {{:listadress.gif}}.
 ====== Further Reading ======
-If you're interested in the Ambient-oriented Programming paradigm in general, check out the [[research:papers|papers on AmOP]] page. The seminal [[http://prog.vub.ac.be/Publications/2005/vub-prog-tr-05-10.pdf|OOPSLA2005 Onward! paper]] pretty much sums up our earliest musings on AmOP. A year later, at [[http://prog.vub.ac.be/Publications/2006/vub-prog-tr-06-11.pdf|ECOOP2006]], we refined these ideas and applied them to our first AmbientTalk prototype.
+If you're interested in the Ambient-oriented Programming paradigm in general, check out the [[research:papers|papers on AmOP]] page. The seminal [[http://prog.vub.ac.be/Publications/2005/vub-prog-tr-05-10.pdf|OOPSLA2005 Onward! paper]] pretty much sums up our earliest musings on AmOP.
+If you're interested in the AmbientTalk programming language, check out the [[research:atpapers|papers on AmbientTalk]] page. The [[http://prog.vub.ac.be/Publications/2006/vub-prog-tr-06-11.pdf|ECOOP2006 paper]] is the first paper describing AmbientTalk in-depth. However, in mid 2006 the language was extensively revised giving rise to AmbientTalk/2. While both languages have an actor-based model of concurrency and feature abstractions for service discovery, AmbientTalk/2 features event loop concurrency model and a more modular and stratified meta-level programming abstractions.
+Since 2007 AmbientTalk refers to AmbientTalk/2 and Dedecker's original AmbientTalk is no longer in use. A good starting point for reading about the current AmbientTalk language is the [[http://prog.vub.ac.be/Publications/2007/vub-prog-tr-07-17.pdf|SCCC2007 paper]].
-If you're interested in the AmbientTalk programming language, check out the [[research:atpapers|papers on AmbientTalk]] page. The [[http://prog.vub.ac.be/Publications/2006/vub-prog-tr-06-11.pdf|ECOOP2006 paper]] is the first paper describing AmbientTalk in-depth. However, since mid-2006, the language has been extensively revised. A good starting point for reading about the revised language is the [[http://prog.vub.ac.be/Publications/2007/vub-prog-tr-07-17.pdf|SCCC2007 paper]].
+Since 2014, AmbientTalk has been actively used mainly as an educational tool to introduce master level students to concepts in concurrency and distribution at the Computer Science programs of the VUB.
-====== Research Topics ======
-  * [[research:ambientrefs|Ambient References]]
-  * [[research:exceptions|Ambient-Oriented Exception Handling]]
-  * [[research:context|Context-Dependent Behaviour Adaptations]]
-  * [[research:dgc|Distributed Garbage Collection]]
-  * [[research:modelling|Modelling for Ambient Intelligence]]
-  * [[research:biomodels|Biologically-Inspired Programming Models]]