Prototyping of parallel and distributed object-oriented systems: the PDC model and its environment

To ease the implementation of distributed object-oriented systems we developed the PDC technique (Proxy/Dispatcher/Collocutor technique), a simple and pragmatic approach to allow addressing of operating-system processes like local objects, i.e., by calling methods that can be dynamically bound. It supports not only concurrency but also distribution over machine boundaries and offers enough flexibility to address real-time requirements, also. On the basis of this technique we developed Process-Build, a prototyping tool for distributed systems. Our approach supports the development of distributed systems from the analysis to the implementation phase of the software life cycle