distributed programming Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems, defined as computer systems whose inter-communicating components are located on different networked computers. The components of a distributed system commu ...

, a portable object is an

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an a ...

which can be accessed through a normal

method Method (, methodos, from μετά/meta "in pursuit or quest of" + ὁδός/hodos "a method, system; a way or manner" of doing, saying, etc.), literally means a pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, or system. In re ...

call while possibly residing in memory on another

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

. It is portable in the sense that it moves from machine to machine, irrespective of

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

or computer architecture. This mobility is the end goal of many

remote procedure call In distributed computing, a remote procedure call (RPC) is when a computer program causes a procedure (subroutine) to execute in a different address space (commonly on another computer on a shared computer network), which is written as if it were a ...

systems. An advantage of portable objects is that they are easy to use and expressive, allowing

programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...

s to be completely unaware that objects reside in other locations. Detractors cite this as a fault, as some programmers will not expect network-related errors or the

unbounded nondeterminism In computer science, unbounded nondeterminism or unbounded indeterminacy refers to a behavior in concurrency (multiple tasks running at once) where a process may face unpredictable delays due to competition for shared resources—such as a print ...

associated with large networks.

References

Distributed computing architecture Object (computer science) {{comp-sci-stub

See also

References