JavaSpaces™ Principles, Patterns, and Practice

Preface

Over the next decade the computing landscape will change dramatically as devices become ubiquitous, network-connected, and ready to communicate. As the landscape changes, the way in which we design and build software will change as well: The distributed application (one that involves multiple processes and devices) will become the natural way we build systems, while the standalone desktop application will become nearly extinct.

Designing distributed software is remarkably hard, however. The fundamental characteristics of a networked environment (such as heterogeneity, partial failure, and latency) and the difficulty of “gluing together” multiple, independent processes into a robust, scalable application present the programmer with many ...