SIMPLE: A language for the specification of protocols, similar to natural language

Abstract

Large and open societies of agents require regulation, and therefore many tools have been developed that enable the definition and enforcement of rules on multiagent systems. Unfortunately, most of them have been designed to be used by computer scientists and are not suitable for people with no more than average computer skills. Since more and more tools are nowadays running as cloud services accessible to anyone (e.g. Massive Open Online Courses and social networks) we feel there is a need for a simple tool that allows ordinary people to create rules and protocols for these kinds of environments. In this paper we present ongoing work on the development of a new programming language for the definition of protocols for multiagent systems, which is so simple that anyone should be able to use it. Although its syntax is strict, it looks very similar to natural language so that protocols written in this language can be understood directly by anyone, without having to learn the language beforehand. Moreover, we have implemented an easy-to-use editor that helps users writing sentences that obey the syntax rules, as well as an interpreter that can parse such protocols and verify whether they are violated or not.