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From: jtf@netcom.com (John T. Foley)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.osf.osf1,comp.unix.programmer,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.sys5.r3,comp.unix.sys5.r4,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: SURVEY ON DISTRIBUTED PROGRAMMING (please respond)
Followup-To: poster
Date: 9 Jan 1995 19:13:33 -0500
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Lines: 231
Sender: barr@pop.psu.edu
Approved: barr@pop.psu.edu
Distribution: inet
Message-ID: <3esjfe$mp6@bosnia.pop.psu.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bosnia.pop.psu.edu
Keywords: client-server, message, middleware, message-oriented-middleware, sockets, message bus
Dear News Reader:
The following is a survey to help us assess how software engineers are
building distributed applications now and in the future. We use the
term "distributed application" to mean a collection of two or more
processes running across a network which must exchange information via message
passing. Typically, databases are NOT used as the communication mechanisms
in these applications.
We ask that you take 10-20 minutes to answer the 16 questions posed
in this survey and e-mail it to jtf@netcom.com or FAX it
to (415)-965-9220. In return for filling out the survey we will send you
the results when it is completed (February).
Thank you for your participation.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1. Are you a software engineer, systems engineer, manager of software
engineers, or are you involved in the software engineering process in
any way?
_____ Yes ______ No
/* if you answer no, you can stop here */
2. Are you building applications which involve distributing data and/or
messages on a network?
_____ Yes ______ No
/* if you answer no, you can stop here */
3. What languages are you developing your software in?
(check all that apply)
___ C ___ C++
___ Ada ___ Smalltalk
___ Fortran ___ Cobol
___ Tcl ___ Python
___ Basic ___ Pascal
___ Other (please specify ____________)
4. What platforms are you DEVELOPING on?
(Check all that apply)
___ Solaris (SPARC) ___ OSF/1 (DEC)
___ Solaris (Intel) ___ OpenVMS (DEC Alpha)
___ Irix (SGI) ___ VMS (DEC VAX)
___ HP-UX (Hewlett-Packard) ___ Windows (Microsoft)
___ AIX (IBM RS/6000) ___ Windows NT (MicroSoft)
___ IBM Mainframe ___ OS-2 (IBM)
___ other (please specify __________)
5. What platforms are you DEPLOYING on?
(Check all that apply)
___ Solaris (SPARC) ___ OSF/1 (DEC)
___ Solaris (Intel) ___ OpenVMS (DEC Alpha)
___ Irix (SGI) ___ VMS (DEC VAX)
___ HP-UX (Hewlett-Packard) ___ Windows (Microsoft)
___ AIX (IBM RS/6000) ___ Windows NT (MicroSoft)
___ IBM Mainframe ___ OS-2 (IBM)
___ other (please specify __________)
6. For your interprocess communication, do you anticipate all communication
to occur on the same machine or will some go across machines?
___ Same machine ____ Across machines
/* if you answer "same machine", skip to 8 */
7. How many machines will be involved in your application?
(Check one only)
___ 1-5
___ 6-10
___ 11-20
___ 21-50
___ more than 50 (please enter how many ___)
8. What type of communication protocols do you need to support?
(Check all that apply)
____ TCP/IP ___ NetBIOS
____ DECNET ___ SNA
____ IPX/SPX ___ X.25
____ Other (please specify ________)
9. Is there a database involved in your application?
_____ Yes ______ No
If you answered "yes", please enter which databases?
(check all that apply)
______ Oracle _____ Sybase
______ Informix _____ Ingres
______ other (please specify _______)
10. On a scale of 1 to 5, how important are the following features
for your inteprocess communication on your CURRENT and FUTURE project?
1 2 3 4 5
not somewhat very
important important important
/* Please leave blank if you are not familiar with the concept */
Now Future
___ ___ 100% guaranteed message delivery
___ ___ Security
___ ___ High performance
___ ___ Ease of use
___ ___ Scripting language for rapid prototyping
___ ___ Support of heterogeneous platforms
___ ___ Load balancing
___ ___ Broadcast - send msg to all machines with one transmission
___ ___ Multicast - send msg to set of machines with one transmission
___ ___ WAN support
___ ___ Prioritized message queues
___ ___ Ability to pass binary data structures
___ ___ Message logging
___ ___ Hot failover
___ ___ Remote procedure calls
___ ___ Asynchronous message passing
___ ___ Software process monitoring (be notified of process status)
___ ___ Software process control (start/stop processes)
___ ___ Graphical development tools for developing application
___ ___ Graphical debugging tools for debugging/watching application
___ ___ C API
___ ___ C++ classes
___ ___ CORBA support
___ ___ DCE Support/Integration
___ ___ Transaction processing
___ ___ Database connectivty
___ ___ SNMP Support
___ ___ CMIP Support
Please list any other features which you feel might be critical.
_________________________________________________________
11. How familiar are you with DCE? (check one)
____ Have been involved in implementation of a system based on DCE
____ Have read several technical publications on DCE
____ Have read news/press releases about DCE
____ Not very familiar
/* If you checked "Not very familiar", skip the next question */
12. On a scale of 1 to 5, which DCE features are most important for
you to use in your distributed application?
1 2 3 4 5
not somewhat very
important important important
/* Please leave blank if you are not familiar with the concept */
____ Threads
____ RPCs
____ Naming (Directory) Services
____ Security
____ Timing
____ Other (please specify _________)
13. a) Are you currently using any 3rd party software for your interprocess
communication?
____ Yes ____ No
b) If yes, which one?
_____________
c) If no, are you evaluating, or planning to evaluate tools which
can help you build your distributed applications?
____ Yes ____ No
d) If still no, what are you using for passing messages between processes?
(check all that apply)
____ Sockets
____ RPCs
____ Shared memory
____ Database
____ DDE
____ CORBA
____ Other (please specify ______________)
14. Which of the following technical software/hardware publications do
you read on a regular basis?
(check all that apply)
____ Unix Review ____ Advanced Systems
____ Open Systems Today ____ UnixWorld's Open Computing
____ Sun Expert ____ X Journal
____ Dr. Dobb's ____ C/C++ Journal
____ Software Development ____ Client-Server Today
____ Digitial News and Review ____ Application Development Trends
____ Software Magazine ____ Communications Week
____ other (please specify __________)
15. What industry are you involved with?
(check the one which is most applicable to your current situtation)
____ Aerospace/Defense ____ Health Care
____ Telecommunications ____ Construction/Mining/Agriculture
____ Financial Services ____ Transportation
____ Insurance ____ Public Utility
____ Education ____ Manufacturing (not computers)
____ Software developer ____ Manufacturing (computers)
____ Wholesale/retail trade ____ Education
____ Government ____ Research and consulting
____ Oil/gas
____ other (please specify) __________
16. Are you interested in becoming a subscriber to a mailing list dealing
with message-oriented middleware (MOM)?
____ Yes ____ No
Thank you for taking the time to fill out the questionnaire. We will
be e-mailing the results back to you shortly. If you have FAXed
this survey back in, please indicate whether you want the results
FAXed back to you or sent via e-mail (be sure to include your e-mail address).
Newsgroup: comp.unix.*