Implementing cooperative software with high-level communication packages

The use of appropriate tools is crucial for the development of robust and distributed software. The programming of heterogeneous environments is more demanding than programming single, stand-alone computers. We believe that client/server technology is not a satisfactory solution. Most problems do not naturally decompose into an asymmetric client/server structure. Better abstraction mechanisms are needed. We propose a new coordination framework that we have developed. It supports shared objects as reliable communication media, advanced transactions, and concurrency through processes that form reliable software contracts. For a discussion, we compare the realization of a typical distributed application, that belongs to the domain of cooperative work, with three different tools: our coordination framework; a representative of the classical client/server and message paradigm; and the Linda communication model