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Transparency and reflection in distributed systems

Author:

Robert StroudAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, Volume 27, Issue 2

Pages 99 - 103

https://doi.org/10.1145/155848.155866

Published: 01 April 1993 Publication History

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Abstract

The recursive composition of systems to form functionally equivalent transparently distributed systems is an important paradigm for constructing distributed systems. The extent to which such recursive transparency can be achieved depends crucially on the semantics and functionality offered by the underlying systems. It is therefore important that systems should be designed so that their functionality scales gracefully in a distributed environment.In order to build a transparent extension to a system, it is necessary to be able to intercept its basic operations and extend their meaning to a distributed environment. This requires the underlying system to have a clean structure with well-defined interfaces and the reflective capability necessary to intercept and extend operations crossing those interfaces. Thus, both reflection and transparency are important aspects of the design of extensible distributed systems.It is possible to make transparent extensions to object-oriented systems built on top of micro-kernel architectures but the lack of reflective capabilities in the current generation of object-oriented programming languages can make this unnecessarily awkward. More research is required to develop languages whose computational model and implementation are a better match for the underlying platforms which support them.

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Cited By

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Bölöni LHao RJun KMarinescu D(2006)Structural biology metaphors applied to the design of a distributed object systemParallel and Distributed Processing10.1007/BFb0097909(275-283)Online publication date: 28-Oct-2006
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0097909
Fabre J(2005)Design and implementation of the Friends systemParallel and Distributed Processing10.1007/3-540-64359-1_731(604-622)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-64359-1_731
Fabre JPérennou T(2005)Friends: A flexible architecture for implementing fault tolerant and secure distributed applicationsDependable Computing — EDCC-210.1007/3-540-61772-8_27(1-20)Online publication date: 6-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61772-8_27
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Index Terms

Transparency and reflection in distributed systems
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types
        Object oriented languages
  2. Software organization and properties
    1. Software system structures
      1. Distributed systems organizing principles

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review

ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review Volume 27, Issue 2

April 1993

106 pages

ISSN:0163-5980

DOI:10.1145/155848

Editor:
William M. Waite
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 April 1993

Published in SIGOPS Volume 27, Issue 2

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Bölöni LHao RJun KMarinescu D(2006)Structural biology metaphors applied to the design of a distributed object systemParallel and Distributed Processing10.1007/BFb0097909(275-283)Online publication date: 28-Oct-2006
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0097909
Fabre J(2005)Design and implementation of the Friends systemParallel and Distributed Processing10.1007/3-540-64359-1_731(604-622)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-64359-1_731
Fabre JPérennou T(2005)Friends: A flexible architecture for implementing fault tolerant and secure distributed applicationsDependable Computing — EDCC-210.1007/3-540-61772-8_27(1-20)Online publication date: 6-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61772-8_27
Shrivastava S(2005)Lessons learned from building and using the Arjuna distributed programming systemTheory and Practice in Distributed Systems10.1007/3-540-60042-6_2(17-32)Online publication date: 5-Jun-2005
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60042-6_2
Karlsen R(2003)An Adaptive Transactional System – Framework and Service SynchronizationOn The Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2003: CoopIS, DOA, and ODBASE10.1007/978-3-540-39964-3_77(1208-1225)Online publication date: 2003
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39964-3_77
Ruiz-Garcia JThévenod-Fosse PFabre J(2001)A Strategy for Testing MetaObject Protocols in Reflective ArchitecturesProceedings of the 2001 International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (formerly: FTCS)10.5555/647882.738085(327-336)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2001
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/647882.738085
Ruiz JThevenod-Fosse PFabre J(2001)A strategy for testing MetaObject protocols in reflective architecturesProceedings International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks10.1109/DSN.2001.941417(327-336)Online publication date: 2001
https://doi.org/10.1109/DSN.2001.941417
Marinescu DBölöni L(2001)Biological metaphors in the design of complex software systemsFuture Generation Computer Systems10.1016/S0167-739X(99)00116-817:4(345-360)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2001
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/S0167-739X%2899%2900116-8
Welch IStroud R(2001)From Dalang to Kava - the Evolution of a Reflective Java ExtensionMeta-Level Architectures and Reflection10.1007/3-540-48443-4_2(2-21)Online publication date: 7-Dec-2001
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Stroud RWu Z(2000)Using Metaobject Protocols to Implement Atomic Data TypesObject-Oriented Programming10.1007/3-540-49538-X_9(168-189)Online publication date: 25-Aug-2000
https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49538-X_9
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