Agent programming extensions relying on a component-based platform

This paper describes a suite of extension to the object oriented model, steering OO programming towards the agent programming paradigm; such set of extensions is called agent programming extensions (APX). APX has been specifically designed to leverage the development of agent-based systems, a widely adopted paradigm to model complex and dynamic software systems. A brief survey of the most commonly used approaches to agent programming is presented, against which APX is evaluated. Then the structure of APX is described and the programming interface offered to the developers illustrated. The developer's point of view, who can greatly benefit from the component-based platform which APX relies upon is also taken into account.