Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!thinman
From: thinman@cup.portal.com (Lance C Norskog)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.nfs
Subject: Re: NeFS protocol
Message-ID: <30275@cup.portal.com>
Date: 28 May 90 21:41:31 GMT
References: <1990May24.034258.13625@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
  <3378@auspex.auspex.com> <265DFAD2.5818@intercon.com> <61077@sgi.sgi.com>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
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It seems to me that the problem of sending a machine-independent program
to a target machine for execution is intimately tied in with the problem of
distributing application software in a machine-independent format.  What
OSF terms ANDF, or Architecture-Neutral Distribution Format.  The quickest
road to success is to hack GNU CC and C++ to compile to an
ASN.1 format pseudo-assembler (called MIX, see Knuth's 3-volume opus) and 
ship that over the network, and on distribution tapes.  

The more high-level this MIX language (probably an object-oriented stack 
language) the faster compilation will be, and an interpreter/debugger will 
give a very nice development environment.  The interpreter would include
a full POSIX library, with optional run-time checking.

Lance Norskog
Sales Engineer
Streamlined Networks