The labs for this course are cumulative. When you're done, you will have built a distributed system of temperature sensors that use gossip protocol to communicate with each other so that each knows the temperatures of the rest using a CRDT for eventual consistency.

The first five labs will give you experience with the basics of picos and how they're programmed.

The second five labs will teach you how to build actor-model distributed systems.

Start by reviewing the Intro to Picos and Actor-Model Programming.

Lab 0: Events and Queries

The objectives of this lab are to

install and run the Pico Engine.
gain an understanding of how picos communicate with each other and how they react to those communications.

Lab 1: APIs and Picos

The objective of this lab is learn how to

use modules in KRL
wrap an external API call and make it available from a module
use ruleset configuration to securely use API keys

Lab 2: Rules, Events, and Intermediaries

After completing this lab, you will be able to:

use multiple rules in conjunction with each other to achieve a purpose
explain how a pico is a first-class Internet citizen
explain channels and how to manage them
send events and queries to a pico using a browser, the event console, and the "Testing" tab

Lab 3: Event-Query APIs and Pico State

The objective of this lab is to understand

the Event-Query API (Links to an external site.)
the use of entity variables.

Lab 4: Single Page Applications

The objective of this lab is to

show how the Event Query API can be used in Web or mobile applications
show the use of a ruleset for holding shared information for other rulesets.

Lab 5: Pico-Based Systems

Previous labs have focused on a single pico and how to use rulesets to change its behavior. This lab goes beyond that to systems of picos. You will be building a pico that creates, updates, and deletes other picos. This ability is one of the primary features of an actor-model system.

The objective of this lab is introduce actor-model programming principles using picos. You will learn:

pico life cycle management
inter-pico interaction

Lab 6: Subscriptions

The objective of this lab is to learn

pico-to-pico subscriptions
how to manage them programatically.

Subscriptions allow you to create networks of peer-to-peer picos and move beyond the hierarchical parent-child relationship.

Lab 7: Reactive Programming Patterns

The purpose of this lab is to

introduce actor-model programming principles using picos
introduce actor-model programming patterns
use asynchronous style interactions in a distributed system

Lab 8: Gossip Protocols

The purpose of this lab is to gain experience in peer-to-peer messaging using a gossip protocol by building a simple chat system using picos.

Lab 9: Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types

The purpose of this lab is to

learn about conflict-free replicated data types
build an eventually consistent distributed system on top of gossip-based messaging