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From: gwilliam@SH.CS.NET (George Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: RPC interface across various platforms
Message-ID: <9010260855.AA26330@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 25 Oct 90 16:49:44 GMT
References: <272365DA.17102@orion.oac.uci.edu>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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Sorry if this is received more than one time...problem in original parse
of your addr. Ditto for cc: list.



This is the $64k question.....

Are there any commercial or public domain packages that will allow th
e
construction of a distributed application running on such diverse pla
tform as.....

>>> While most of the aforementioned have solutions that are designed 
>>> for distributed computing environments most of them tend to
>>> be product-based, perhaps by design. That is there is no "one"
>>> technical solution to the problem as stated; that of a generic
>>> application programming interface for distributed computing
>>> environments that every one uses to make the same calls on 
>>> any machine.( the OS may accomplish this before the API's )

>>> This is where most vendors seem to be drawing the line in the
>>> sand as to which side of the open computing fence they stand
>>> (straddle) on and probably for good reason; it will be the
>>> one that keeps software from becoming a commodity ( oops ).

>>> The good news is that everyone is making an effort to talk
>>> to everyone else. The other side of the coin is "what can be
>>> said" i.e. what application functionality can you access without
>>> buying a specific API for you machine .

>>> The companies moving in the direction of "common APIs and  open network
>>> toolkits" have the jump on the rest of the pack. This the area
>>> where the biggest gains are to be made not just dollar-wise
>>> but in the are of engineering and programming productivity. It
>>> is becoming clear that the "one" solution for a generic RPC
>>> will have support for many Application Program Interfaces. Suggested
>>> system analysis, prior to making a strategic choice.

>>> IBM MVS/XA - solutions under an SAA/CPI umbrella
>>> VAX VMS    - ditto OAA
>>> Macintoshes- MAC everything (smile)
>>> PCs        - VINES,NETWARE,NETBIOS,APPC,LU.6.2
>>> BSD flavors- Take your pick from SUN,etc's ONC to OSF(oops Mach)
>>>              et al DCEs and see below.
>>> UNIX?      - appears to be the LCD when choosing, to date.
>>>              common API/RPC  running under this will probably have
                 broadest base with respect to mix and match
                 capabilities and ease of implementation..

>>> Note: I have seen proprietary solutions that are nice...in fact so nice
>>>       elements of them will make it into standards.


 George Williams

 (Disclaimer: subjective observations. I'm sures other have specifics....)