10.5 Java and mobile agents
Java language has changed the Web overnight and offers unique capabilities that are fuelling the
development of mobile agent systems. Java is a powerful tool for mobile agent development, as
seen in the following discussion.
10.5.1 Advantages of Java
1. Platform independence: Java is designed to operate in heterogeneous environments. To
enable a Java application to execute anywhere on the network, the computer generates architec-
ture neutral byte code as opposed to non-portable native code. For this code to be executed on a
given computer, the Java runtime system must be present. This allows us to create a mobile agent
without knowledge of the types of computers it will run on.
2. Dynamic class loading: This mechanism allows ...