Extending dynamic program updating systems to support distributed systems that communicate via remote evaluation

A dynamic program updating system (updating system) provides mechanisms for changing a running program without shutting down (terminating) the program. An updating system is useful for repairing bugs, introducing new functionality, or reconfiguring a system where the cost of shutting it down is great. One common type of software-based updating system is the procedure-oriented updating system (PODUS), which updates programs written in procedural programming languages by replacing the individual procedures that make up a program. Because there exists a large body of software written in procedural programming languages, procedure-oriented updating techniques can be applied to many kind of applications. This paper describes a brief description of the PODUS updating system. It discuss a number of interprocess communication (IPC) alternatives and their potential compatibility with PODUS. It describes the author´s REV-based PODUS extensions, demonstrating how they would be used in a real updating scenario