Remote Procedure Call: a stepping stone towards ODP

Abstract Distributed applications are significantly harder to program due to the greater complexity of the distributed computing environment. This results in additional failure modes we normally ignore in conventional programming as well as the need to handle interprocess communication. Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is a tool for application programmers which hides much of the complexity of the distributed environment by extending the common procedure call model found in many programming languages. Currently, RPC is being standardized by ISO. This standard can be considered as the first member of the family of Open Distributed Processing (ODP) standards and provides a stepping stone towards ODP. It is hoped to produce the Committee Draft during the May SC21 meeting in Arles.