On the code development paradigm of RPC and CORBA applications

Abstract

Generally, after the design phase, code development for distributed applications in RPC or in CORBA remote object call mode includes five steps: (1) develop the client and server application-related code; (2) specify the client-server communication protocol; (3) compile the protocol definition; (4) migrate the servers, server stubs and other related components to remote machines; and (5) make the client and servers executable. All of these steps except (1) are, in fact, irrelevant to coding the application. These unrelated steps are time-consuming and errorprone and require additional learning, increasing the development time and cost of distributed applications. In this paper, we propose a simplified code development paradigm for RPC- and CORBA-style distributed applications. In this paradigm, a programmer focuses only on coding the application itself. In other words, the code development style is nearly the same as that of centralized applications. The mechanism of the computing environment to the proposed paradigm is described. An example explaining the implementation details of the computing environment for RPC applications is also presented.