Call/Return vs. Remote Procedure Calls in Concurrent
Object-Oriented Program
Abstract
Since they represent distribution as well as encapsulation, objects
can interact via message passing only. One of the main principles of
the object-oriented programming paradigm is that messages represent
communication as well as computation. Although the application of
Remote Procedure Calls would be a natural choice in moving from
sequential towards parallel execution of object-oriented programs,
from different reasons discussed in the paper, one-way messages
either synchronous or asynchronous are applied at the language level
in most of the object-based concurrent programming concepts.
Instead of the higher level notion of the Remote Procedure Call,
method invocations and conveying return values have to be explicitly
composed from a pair of one-way messages.
The author argues that it is as dangerous as building critical
sections explicitly from semaphores. It is also claimed that the
adaptation of Remote Procedure Calls results in a more structured
program and is less prone to error, therefore, it better suits for
the higher level notion of object-oriented paradigm.
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