The Common Business Communication Language
Reference: John McCarthy (1975/1982, revised 1998/1999). Stanford CS Department. Source file: cbcl2.pdf. URL
Summary
McCarthy’s 1975 memo (revived in 1998 with footnotes anticipating XML and electronic commerce) sketches a Common Business Communication Language (CBCL) allowing computers from different organizations to exchange business messages - requests for quotations, offers, order status, delivery queries - without pre-arranged bilateral formats. The paper enumerates requirements: open-endedness, pre-existing compatibility, independence of internal data formats, and ability to fall back to human-readable form when a receiver does not understand a new message.
He proposes messages as nested parenthesized lists (a Lisp-like syntax McCarthy argues is isomorphic to but simpler than XML), adjectival modifiers (ADJECTIVE FOO YELLOW), and Russell description operators for referring expressions. The essay prefigures KQML-style performatives and electronic data interchange, and closes with 1998 advice to XML, W3C, and ICE on extensibility, Lisp-style syntax, and standard time formats.
Key Ideas
- Inter-organizational computer communication without pre-arranged formats.
- Lisp-style S-expression syntax isomorphic to but simpler than XML.
- Adjectival modifiers (ADJECTIVE x y as a kind of y) for partial understanding.
- Non-monotonic reasoning required for natural-language-like expressivity.
- Proto-KQML vision of semantic business messaging.
Connections
Conceptual Contribution
- Claim: Organisations should exchange business messages in a common, open-ended language without pre-arranged bilateral formats; partial understanding must degrade gracefully to human-readable fallback.
- Mechanism: Lisp-style S-expression messages (isomorphic to but simpler than XML), adjectival modifiers (ADJECTIVE x y) for partial-match semantics, Russell description operators for referring expressions, non-monotonic reasoning for NL-like expressivity; 1998 footnotes advise XML/W3C/ICE communities.
- Concepts introduced/used: Common Business Communication Language, S-expressions, EDI, Non-monotonic Reasoning, Adjectival Modifiers, Agent Communication Languages, Ontologies, Performatives, Speech Act Theory, KQML
- Stance: foundational
- Relates to: Anticipates the performative-based vision of KQML Language And Protocol and the open discovery ambitions of Agent Network Protocol / Survey Of Agent Interoperability Protocols; its syntactic minimalism resonates with REST’s uniform interface in Principled Design Of The Modern Web Architecture.