|
Abstract : |
As the size of a distributed system grows it becomes increasingly di cult for users to nd their way around. One solution for this problem is user centered naming. A problem with user centered naming is that it has the potential to cause confusion and to make sharing di cult. This problem can be avoided if the system supports closure. Although the same name may refer to di erent objects at di erent times, the context in which the name is to be evaluated is always known. 1 Identifying Objects in Very Large Systems As distributed systems become larger it becomes increasingly di cult to nd things. Traditional system such as Andrew[3], Locus[7] and Sprite[6] support a uniform global namespace which uniquely names all objects. While this approach allows simple sharing of names, the names tend to be lengthy. Another problem with this approach is that, to the user, the namespace is huge and mostly cluttered with things that aren't of interest. This makes the job of nding things more di cult. An alternative to a uniform namespace is to allow individual users to customize their namespace, |
