Design of an object-oriented distributed system: experience with CSA

The Communication System Architecture (CSA), a five-year project to design and implement an object-oriented architecture for distributed office systems is described. The architecture is based on an object model supported by a hierarchy of recursive abstract object machines, allowing transparent communication and providing a set of facilities for building high-quality distributed applications in a heterogeneous and distributed office environment. The CSA architecture is presented, and the CSA communication facilities, transparent means of communication between CSA object machines, are described. The CSA object model is discussed, and it is shown that how the CSA architecture provides a suitable method to facilitate application design. The CSA native language is introduced, and the CSA mail service is presented as an application example