NetKernel

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
<p>NetKernel was started at Hewlett-Packard Labs in 1999. It was conceived by Dr. Russ Perry, Dr. Royston Sellman and Dr. Peter Rodgers as a general purpose XML operating environment that could address the needs of the exploding interest in XML dialects for intra-industry XML messaging.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a>
</p><p>Rodgers saw the web as an implementation of a general abstraction which he extrapolated as ROC, but whereas the web is limited to publishing information; he set about conceiving a solution that could perform computation using similar principles.  Working in close partnership with co-founder Tony Butterfield, they discovered a method for writing software that could be executed across a logical model, separated from the physical realm of code and objects. Recognising the potential for this approach, they spun out of HP Labs.
</p><p>Rodgers and Butterfield begun their company as "1060 Research Limited" in Chipping Sodbury, a small market town on the edge of the Cotsolds region of England in 2002, and over a number of years developed the platform that became NetKernel.
</p><p>In early 2018, 1060 Research announced that it was appointing a new CEO, Charles Radclyffe.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> Radclyffe announced to the NetKernel community in February 2018 that the team were working on a new platform based on NKEE 6 which would be fully hosted, programmable and accessible via the web - NetKernel Cloud.  Radclyffe resigned after six months.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a>
</p>
<h2 id="concepts">Concepts</h2>
<h3>Resource</h3>
<p>A <i>resource</i> is identifiable information within a computer system. Resources are an abstract notion and they cannot be manipulated directly. When a resource is requested, a concrete, immutable <i>representation</i> is provided which captures the current state of the resource. This is directly analogous to the way the World Wide Web functions. On the Web, a URL address identifies a globally accessible resource. When a browser issues a request for the resource it is sent a representation of the resource in the response.
</p>
<h3>Addresses</h3>
<p>A resource is identified by an <i>address</i> within an <i><a href="/facts/Address_space/EscyYKkP">address space</a></i>. In NetKernel, <a href="/facts/Uniform_Resource_Identifier/UjyqxTpA">Uniform Resource Identifier</a> (URI) addresses are used to identify  all resources. Unlike the Web, which has a single global address space, NetKernel supports an unlimited number of address spaces and supports relationships between address spaces.
</p><p>NetKernel supports a variety of <a href="/facts/URI_scheme/Ae3AaLCl">URI schemes</a> and introduces new ones specifically applicable to URI addressing within a software system.
</p>
<h3>Request</h3>
<p>The fundamental operation in NetKernel is a <i>resource request</i>, or <i>request</i>. A request consists of a resource URI address and a <i>verb</i>.
Supported verbs include SOURCE, SINK, NEW, DELETE, EXISTS and META. Each request is dispatched to a <a href="/facts/Monolithic_kernel/33kvBcT9">microkernel</a> which resolves the URI address to a physical endpoint and assigns and schedules a <a href="/facts/Thread_(computer_science)/hh8WHyPd">thread</a> for processing. When the endpoint completes processing the microkernel returns the response to the initiating client.
</p>
<h2 id="programming">Programming</h2>
<p>The fundamental instruction in NetKernel is a resource request, specified by a URI. Mechanisms that sequence URI requests are located above the microkernel. In the current Java-based implementation, requests are dispatched using a Java API. This implies that any language that can call a Java API can be used to program NetKernel.
</p><p>As of April 2013<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NetKernel&action=edit">[update]</a>, the set of languages supported includes:
</p>
<ul><li>Java</li>
<li>Ruby</li>
<li>Scala</li>
<li>Clojure</li>
<li>JavaScript</li>
<li>Python 2</li>
<li>Groovy</li>
<li>Beanshell</li>
<li>PHP</li>
<li>DPML</li>
<li>XML related languages such as XQuery</li>
<li>The URI specification itself has sufficient richness to express a functional programming language.</li></ul>
<h3>Active URI Scheme</h3>
<p>The <i>active</i> URI scheme was proposed by <a href="/facts/Hewlett-Packard/abuNSYNu">Hewlett-Packard</a> as a means to encode a <a href="/facts/Functional_program/cdxqPEIM">functional program</a> within a URI.
</p>
active: {function-name} [+ {parameter-name} @ {parameter-value-URI}]*

<p>For example, the following URI calls a random number generator
</p>
active:random
<p>and the following uses an <a href="/facts/XSLT/0gw4WVyJ">XSLT</a> service to transform an <a href="/facts/XML/clNgUfWk">XML</a> document with an XSLT stylesheet:
</p>
active:xslt+operator@file:/style.xsl+operand@file:/document.xml
<p>Because the argument values may be URI addresses themselves, a tree-structured set of function calls can be encoded in a single URI.
</p>
<h3>Transports</h3>
<p>Transports are a mechanism used to introduce requests from outside of NetKernel to the NetKernel address space. Transports are available for the HTTP protocol, JMS (<a href="/facts/Java_Message_Service/aTzyVj3n">Java Message Service</a>), and CRON. Other transports can be easily added as they are independent from the rest of NetKernel.
</p><p>The role of the transport is to translate an external request based on one protocol into a NetKernel request with a URI and a specific verb (SOURCE, SINK, etc.) and then to send the returned representation back to the client via the supported protocol.
</p><p>Two mappings are handled by a transport. The first is between the address space of the externally supported protocol to the internal NetKernel address space. And the second is between the verb or action specified externally into a NetKernel verb.
</p><p>For example, in the case of the HTTP transport, the external address space is a sub-space of a URL. The following mapping illustrates this point.
</p>
http://www.mywebsite.com/publications/...
       
             |
             v

file:/src/publications/...
<p>In addition, the HTTP protocol supports methods such as GET, PUT, HEAD, etc. which are mapped to NetKernel verbs.
</p>
<h3>Scripting languages</h3>
<p>A mechanism is needed to issue the URI requests, capture the returned representations, and communicate with clients.
</p><p>Scripting languages are executed by their runtime engine, which is itself a service. For example, the <a href="/facts/Groovy_(programming_language)/vGAckbte">Groovy</a> language runtime will run a program contained in the file file:/program.gy with the following:
</p>
active:groovy+operator@file:/program.gy

<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Representational_State_Transfer/Q58zfr5h">Representational State Transfer</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Web_resource/42wbl7QV">Web resource</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Jolie_(programming_language)/JfGFHhnn">Jolie</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/List_of_user_interface_markup_languages/a11LYj6s">List of user interface markup languages</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.netkernel.io/">Official website</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.netkernel.io">1060 Research</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/1060NetKernel/getting-started">getting-started</a> on <a href="/facts/GitHub/n1hNCsc3">GitHub</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>"1060 Public License v1.2". 1060 Research. <a href="http://www.1060research.com/license/" target="_blank">http://www.1060research.com/license/</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"About: History". 1060 Research. <a href="http://www.1060research.com/about/#history" target="_blank">http://www.1060research.com/about/#history</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Bristol startup NetKernel hires Deutsche Bank innovation lead as CEO". FinExtra. 7 February 2018. <a href="https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/31641/bristol-startup-netkernel-hires-deutsche-bank-innovation-lead-as-ceo" target="_blank">https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/31641/bristol-startup-netkernel-hires-deutsche-bank-innovation-lead-as-ceo</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>"Three Critical Lessons I Learned from My 6 Months as a Deep Tech CEO". <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlesradclyffe/2018/08/30/three-critical-lessons-i-learned-from-my-6-months-as-a-deep-tech-ceo/#310f15da5f88" target="_blank">https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlesradclyffe/2018/08/30/three-critical-lessons-i-learned-from-my-6-months-as-a-deep-tech-ceo/#310f15da5f88</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

NetKernel open-in-new

NetKernel