Computer languages for distributed processing
General-purpose languages with distributed constructs
Particular approaches to distributed computing that appeal to me
include
PVM,
Linda
and an object-oriented distributed language named
Obliq.
I've also begun to study the
Legion,
scheme-48,
DP,
BSP,
Erlang, and
O-Plan projects.
Moreover, Annex E ("Distributed Systems") of the Ada95
specification
defines such capabilities, so a validated Ada95 compiler with a
validated Annex E is a possibility. Finally, I understand that
NextStep's Objective C offers a simple distribution construct; I
don't yet know what it is.
Eiffel//
Also conducive to distribution of processing:
FORTRAN, of course, and
Taligent,
Taos,
Telescript from General Magic,
Phantom,
...
Ada95
Ada (note in particular the
enormous
AdaBasis library), ...
In 1997, JavaSpaces
have picked up where Linda left off.
Kyler
Laird provides a slick
service
which delivers records from the DistProc mailing list.
Workers at the University of Wisconsin have developed Condor,
which scavenges spare workstation cycles found on a LAN.
Condor is in place at the Joint Institute for Nuclear
Research at Dubna University and the University of Michigan.
Platform Computing's commercial LSF partitions jobs around
a (perhaps transiently) dedicated network. UC Berkeley's
NOW links Suns with very fast network connections. CESDIS
has a project called Beowulf.
Client-server, peer-to-peer, ...
Agent technologies
... SmallTalk Agents, Safe-Tcl, ...
Distributed OSs
Plan9,
Taos, ... Taos is an interesting case; it receives
vanishingly little press, but correspondents tell me
it's healthy and on the verge of major commitments
from large end-users. Individuals who use it are
enthusiastic.
Cameron
Laird's index to computer languages for distributed
processing/claird@phaseit.net