Function Transmission for a Distributed Higher-Order Language (Extended Abstract)

) Frederick Knabe November 2, 1994 Abstract New classes of distributed applications are appearing that require the ability to transmit executable code. To support these applications, we have implemented a function transmission facility for Facile, a distributed extension of Standard ML. Satisfying the needs of efficiency, heterogeneity, and distributed type safety required some modifications to the language. In this paper we report on the design choices we made and draw some conclusions about the high-level language features necessary to support function transmission. Word count: 4991 1 Introduction A common characteristic of distributed applications is that they exchange data over a network. Until recently, that data was generally limited to primitive types such as integers and strings along with various structured types. Now, though, a new class of distributed applications is beginning to appear that also relies on the ability to transmit code. Interest has been growing in appl..