An orthogonal approach to distribution: An introduction to the Vitruvian framework

Distributed systems are becoming more prevalent as the demand for connectivity increases. Developers are faced with the challenge of creating software systems that meet these demands, while still trying to achieve basic quality goals such as good modularization, performance, and maintainability. The challenge is even greater when requirements for distribution are introduced late in the development cycle. This paper introduces a development framework, called Vitruvian, that allows programmers to create software systems with class hierarchies that are close to the problem domain and independent of distribution decisions. Then at any point in the development cycle, developers can declare what is distributed, at virtually any level of granularity from high-level objects down to individual attributes. To minimize impact on the development life cycle, Vitruvian supports access and location transparency, plus a wide range of replication strategies.