Java Do es not Distribute
Gerald Brose Klaus Peter L ohr Andr e Spiegel
fbrose lohr spiegelg inf fu b erlin de
Technical Report B
Octob er
Abstract
Java is commonly considered the ideal language for implementing software for the In
ternet A closer lo ok however reveals that distributed programming is p o orly supp orted
in Java This is b ecause the very design of the language rules out distribution transparent
remote invo cation It is shown that Sun s technology for distributed Java programming
RMI makes things worse by allowing two di erent invo cation semantics to hide b ehind
an ob ject variable The consequences of using CORBA instead of RMI are inv estigated
Various options for changing either RMI or Java itself are considered so that language
platforms supp orting a high degree of distribution transparency could be built
Freie Universit at Berlin
Institut f ur Informatik
Takustra e
D Berlin Germany
This rep ort also app ears in Pro c TOOLS Paci c Melb ourne Australia November