SURVEY OF AGENT FRAMEWORKS

LEARNING GOALS You can build a harness entirely by yourself, as you will do in Chapter 65. But many teams choose to start from a framework instead. In this chapter, you will learn what a framework is, three common families of agent frameworks, and how to decide between building your own harness and adopting one. THE PREFABRICATED HOUSE PICTURE Imagine you want a house. You could cut every board yourself, mix your own concrete, and wire every outlet. That gives you total control, but it takes a very long time and demands many skills. Or you could buy a prefabricated house, where the walls, roof sections, and plumbing arrive already made, and you assemble them. That is much faster, but you must live with the floor plans the manufacturer chose. A framework is a prefabricated kit for software. Some kits are large and come with many rooms already designed. Other kits are small and give you just a frame and a few tools. Choosing a framework is choosing how much to be given and how much to decide yourself.