oRis: an agents communications language for distributed virtual environments

In this paper, we present oRis which is a multiagent language. This language is particularly well adapted to the creation of applications in distributed virtual environments. oRis language is agent oriented (active object) and interpreted. The interpreter is written in C++. Then, oRis allows a deep coupling with C++ language. Moreover, due to the oRis/C++ coupling, oRis may be connected to other languages. For example, we are able to call Java for network communication. In its basic version, oRis authorizes different types of communications between agents located on the same machine: synchronous, asynchronous and diffusion. Thus, we have developed a communication layer allowing communication among distant agents located on different machines.