A model of persistent software composition

Abstract

This paper presents a proposal that allows large distributed persistent applications to be composed from one or more hyper-worlds. Hyper-worlds are self-contained hyper-programs that can be dynamically composed to form larger applications. To support hyper-worlds and their distribution, the concepts of a locality and an indirection are presented. A locality is a self-contained persistent entity that does not allow direct pointers to leak across its boundaries. An indirection is a network-wide typed pointer that can address the services provided by localities. It is shown that localities can directly implement hyper-worlds with indirections providing the necessary glue to build large distributed applications.