`Argus´: the programming language and system

Summary form only given, as follows. Argus is a programming language and system designed to support the construction and maintenance of distributed programs: programs in which models reside and execute at communicating, but geographically distinct, nodes. In addition, Argus is intended to support a class of applications in which the manipulation and preservation of long-lived, on-line, distributed data is important. The language addresses the writing of robust programs that survive hardware failures without loss of distributed information and that provide highly concurrent access to that information while preserving its consistency. Several new linguistic constructs are provided; among them are atomic actions, and modules called guardians that survive node failures