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Next: Distributed Objects Up: Note 186: The Tasking Environment of AIPS++ Previous: Requirements

Overview

This document defines an environment which orchestrates the creation and intercommunication of various software entities. These software entities include application objects, which are packagings of (presumably) useful functionality with a standard interface that are directly controlled by end users. Besides the application objects, the environment provides access to an extensible set of other distributed objects. These objects might be used by an application programmer, or they might be used directly by an end user to perform some ad-hoc calculation (by manipulating the objects through a command-line interpreter (CLI)).

All distributed object operations are managed by a control hub. The control hub is responsible for activating and deactivating the distributed objects, and for mediating communications amongst its objects. It also provides run-time access to a simple database, used for information like absolute paths to data directories. The control hub itself appears as a special object in the system.

The rest of this paper fills in the details:

1.: Describe how object interfaces are defined, and their execution semantics.
2.: Describe the design of the control hub.
3.: Propose an initial set of standard object services to implement a canonical user environment.
4.: Proposes a small set of further objects that are of short-term utility for programmers.

It is worthwhile noting that the computer industry is in the process of creating various distributed object systems as well, although it is not yet clear when these systems will be widely available in our Unix marketplace, or even what system (CORBA/SOM vs. OLE/COM) will be the eventual winner. It is certain, however, that such a system will be widely available within a small number of years. When this has happened, it is intended that the system described in the paper should (gradually) be replaced with that system.

Note that the classes in this document should be considered to be illustrative, not complete.

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