Robert E. Filman

Models, languages, and heuristics for distributed computing

We are interested in the issues surrounding computer problem solving in systems of loosely coupled processes. This paper is a compendium of ideas related to the software issues involved in programming distributed systems. We discuss two aspects of this problem: languages and models for distribution, and heuristics for organizing distributed systems. The second section of the paper discusses the nature of distributed languages and models, and presents a comparison of the attributes of several of the major proposals for distributed computing. The third section is a discussion of some heuristics for the organization of multiple-process systems.