Nodes and netlets

Netlets are the smallest programming unit directly addressed by Jtrix. As indicated above, a node provides the environment in which a netlet is executed.

Currently Jtrix netlets must be written in Java, but other languages may be supported in the future.⁵ Java satisfies the portability requirements, allows Jtrix to be implemented on many operating systems, and is easily incorporated into other applications.

A netlet consists of one or more Jar files which contain its programming. A netlet has a main class of which a single instance is created by the node when the netlet starts. The node controls the netlet though this object, which must implement the netlet control interface (INetlet) specified in the Jtrix API. When the netlet is initialised, it is passed an instance of a node control interface (INode) through which it accesses functionality provided by the node.