Visual programming in a distributed environment

This paper discusses the possibility of using a visual programming environment to build distributed applications. We refer to a running system developed at the University of Pavia and deal with the distribution of data, programs and executions. Within the D-VIPERS programming environment, which is based on the data-flow paradigm, data can be stored locally or in a remote machine and can be accessed by means of special blocks via TCP/IP (a block is a node in the data-flow graph). The blocks themselves can be stored locally or in a remote machine: a proper daemon manages the dynamic loading of remote block libraries, allowing a number of cooperating working units to develop and maintain different routines on their own machines and make them available for the other units. Moreover, the user can program blocks to be executed locally or on a more suitable remote machine.