Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Developing large-scale distributed applications can be a daunting task. object-based environments have attempted to alleviate problems by providing distributed objects that look like local objects. We advocate that this approach has actually only made matters worse, as the developer needs to be aware of many intricate internal details in order to adequately handle partial failures. The result is an increase of application complexity. We present an alternative in which distribution transparency is lessened in favor of clearer semantics. In particular, we argue that a developer should always be offered the unambiguous semantics of local objects, and that distribution comes from copying those objects to where they are needed. We claim that it is often sufficient to provide only small, immutable objects, along with facilities to group objects into clusters.
DOI: 10.4204/eptcs.30.1
Authors: Jan-Mark S. Wams, Maarten van Steen
Institution: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Networks and Communications
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1979565760