Future Directions in Middleware Research and Technology Fabio Kon Department of Computer Science University of São Paulo, Brazil

University of Tromsø 2 Main Issues l Component-Based Software l Automatic Configuration l Adaptive Systems l Separation of Concerns / Reflection l Ubiquitous Computing l Social Aspects

University of Tromsø 3 Component-Based Software l Development: we need tools for l writing components l assembling components l debugging and testing l Deployment l standard environments l INTEROPERABILITY l Systems l Education But, it’s still our only alternative!

University of Tromsø 4 Automatic Configuration l Past: many users per computer l Present: few computers per user l Future: hundreds (thousands ?) computing devices per user l Solutions: 1. Static configuration from manufacturer 2. Automatic Configuration

University of Tromsø 5 Recent Advances in Automatic Configuration l 2K: some ideas, a nice prototype, many problems. l Debian Linux: limited scope, very robust and extremely useful implementation. l Major problem: how to specify what a component needs (prerequisites). l Prerequisite specification language l Prerequisite generator l (in fact, we need meta-information about components, systems, and environments)

University of Tromsø 6 Future Work in Automatic Configuration l Study prerequisite specification in Enterprise Java Beans, CORBA Component Model,.NET. l Investigate l how to generate them automatically; l how to use them for automatic configuration.

University of Tromsø 7 Adaptive Systems l One size does not fit all. l Environments are becoming more and more dynamic. l So, we need 1. generic model/framework for building adaptive systems; 2. compose repertoire of adaptations when designing new systems.

University of Tromsø 8 Separation of Concerns Functional Aspects vs. Non-Functional Aspects l Traditional approach (e.g., OO) is not enough l Reflection seems to be the most effective and flexible way of doing it. l Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) l a promising idea l but still very limited

University of Tromsø 9 Ubiquitous Computing l It will happen l most solutions are still ad hoc l Gaia OS

University of Tromsø 10 But l Why are we doing this? Open Software! Free Software! What about the other 90%? Bill Gates and co.? Multi-billion $ companies? The 10% of the people who have Internet access? For whom we are doing this?