Address

An address is a location within an address space.

NetKernel uses addresses to identify and locate resources within an address space. Software running in NetKernel issues requests using an address to fetch resources, create new ones, delete them, updated them, etc.

NetKernel uses URI addressing. URI addresses take the form:

{scheme-name} : {address}

The URI address scheme, identified by a scheme-name, defines the syntax and semantics of the address portion.

You are probably familiar with a number of URI schemes such as http:, ftp:, file:, etc. NetKernel uses the active: and ffcpl: schemes extensively. The active: scheme follows the active URI extension proposal, created by the NetKernel Architects when Researchers at Hewlett-Packard, to define functional programs and the ffcpl: scheme is used to reference resources within a module.

An address space contains a set of all possible addresses and hence all possible resources. As you will see, NetKernel supports an infinite number of address spaces and can establish relationships between address spaces.