| This dissertation describes a new computer language and runtime environment called Dsl (Distributed Script Language). Dsl is designed for writing distributed scripts: short- to medium-length programs for distributed computing systems. Dsl's goal is to simplify the process of writing distributed scripts.;Currently, the most common way to write distributed programs is to use a traditional, compiled programming language such as C or C++ along with a remote procedure call (RPC) system such as Sun RPC or OSF DCE RPC. This method works well for writing large or high-performance distributed programs that will be in use for a long time. However, the time, effort, and expertise required to write a distributed program using a traditional programming language and an RPC system usually makes this method unsuitable for writing scripts. Frequently scripts are short and/or not heavily used, so it is desirable to be able to write them relatively quickly and easily.;At present, there are many languages available for writing non-distributed scripts. However, writing distributed programs with these languages is difficult because non-distributed scripting languages typically provide very little support for distributed programming. The Dsl language combines the attributes of non-distributed scripting languages that make them convenient for programming scripts with distributed programming language features.;Dsl contains the following script language features: it is interpreted, it is interactive, it supports high-level data types, type declarations are usually unnecessary, it is object-oriented, it has no explicit pointer types, and it uses garbage collection for automatic storage management. The following features that are commonly associated with distributed programming are supported: remote object access, the capability to communicate using various RPC systems (foreign RPC), and multi-threading. In addition, Dsl contains an exception handling system.;The contents of the dissertation include an informal description of the language, a more formal language reference, and a description of the current implementation.;The design of the language is complete (although there are some additional features that may be added later) and a skeleton implementation has been completed. The initial alpha testing has been encouraging. |
