The ZEUS Agent Building Toolkit Version 1.02 November 1999
--------------GETTING STARTED --------------So, the ZEUS toolkit
has been installed, and you've updated your system's CLASSPATH
environment variables to include the Zeus JAR files. What next?
First time users of ZEUS are advised to start by trying the example
agent applications included with the distribution. The examples
illustrate how to run ZEUS agents, as well as providing subjects
for the Visualisation tools to display. The Agent Viewer may prove
particularly useful in helping novice users understand how the
agents are functioning. The example applications are contained in
their own separate directories, which can be found in the
zeus/examples directory, namely: fruitmarket pc faultdemo multimaze
an agent based trading simulation a PC manufacture supply chain a
reactive fault resolution simulation using rules a multiple agent
version of the above
A short introduction and instructions on how to run each demo
can be found in the README.txt file included in each directory. In
addition, the Case Study documents provide a guided tour of the
sample applications. A description of how the agents (and their
constituent components) work is provided by the ZEUS Technical
Manual. This also explains the conceptual basis of ZEUS agents, and
the levels of abstraction present within the toolkit class
package.
Using the Agent Generator ------------------------Once you feel
you comfortable with how the example applications work you may
experiment and edit some of the the agents or tasks using the Agent
Generator tool. This is the best means of learning how to build
agent applications, (rather than trying to implement a completely
new agent application from scratch). The ZEUS Agent Generator tool
is started by entering the following command: java
zeus.generator.AgentGenerator (there is a PC batchfile called
zeus.bat containing the same command, PC users might want to copy
this into a directory referred by %PATH%) If ZEUS has been
installed properly a window should appear entitled 'ZEUS Agent
Generator'. If not, your Java runtime environment probably can not
find the class files that implement the Agent Generator, take
another look at the installation instructions, and then recheck
your CLASSPATH settings. Instructions on using the ZEUS Agent
Generator can be found in the ZEUS Application Realisation Guide
document.
Have fun!
