Flage: A programming language for adaptive software

We propose a programming language, Flage, for building software systems whi ch dynamically adapt to changing local situations. In our language, we cons truct applications by agents; concurrent mobile objects with the metalevel architecture. Metalevel programming facilities realize a self-control of an agent's actions and an autonomous adaptation to changes. We also introduce another kind of program element called field. A field represents a local s ituation around agents. For example, one field represents a virtual place t o get local information in a network environment and another represents a v irtual place where agents do cooperative works. If an agent enters a field, it gets programs and shared information in the field. By moving field to f ield, an agent can change its program composition by itself and it adapts t o changing local situations. In this paper, we describe the language specif ication of Flage, the implementation of the platform for Flage programming and show some program examples.