Indeterminate Heuristics
Rete Networks and Tuple Spaces
by Dale Asberry
September 28, 2004

Summary
I've been doing a lot of work around rule engines lately and am starting to feel that there are a number of similarities/parallels between a Rete knowledge base and a Javaspace.

Observations

These are the similarities I see:

both are heavily information dependent (tuple entries, rule base facts)
both are heavily rule dependent (tuple templates, rules)
both are operationally similar with only two essential operations: rulebase - assert/retract, tuplespace - write/take
both have a conceptual LHS (left-hand-side, conditionals) and RHS (actions)
generally speaking, the facts change faster than the rules

Would a Rete network model be more appropriate than a relational model for a Javaspace?

(Half-Baked?) Conclusion

Currently, the JavaSpaces spec only provides for a single template type to match. Providing an API to match multiple types (and object values) would allow for a distributed rules engine. Taking this idea one step further: distributed workflow engine.

Resources

Overviews of the Rete Algorithm:

Wikipedia - Rete Algorithm

Drools - Rete

JESS - The Rete Algorithm

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About the Blogger

R. Dale Asberry been hacking since 1978, professionally since 1990. He's certified in Java 1.1 and has a four digit MCP number. He discovered Jini at the 2000 JavaOne and has been building incredibly cool, dynamic, distributed architectures ever since! Over time, he's discovered several principles that have contributed to his success - they are the Princples of: Enabling Others, Simplicity, No Complaining, Least Work, Least Surprise, Least Damage, and "It Just Works".


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