OMG where did the time go?

While writing the previous entry concerning building transactional applications I came across that HP paper by Nigel Edwards. That sent shivers down my spine because I can recall Nigel sharing the office with Stuart and I for months while he got to grips with Arjuna. We were both still doing our PhDs and also in the throws of making the first code release of Arjuna to the world. Here's the announcement for Release 2 (it would appear that our first release predates the web!):

Arjuna (Distr Prog System)

What: Release 2 of Arjuna Distributed Programming System
From: arjuna@newcastle.ac.uk (Arjuna Project)
Date: Mon, 17 May 1993 12:37:34 GMT

        We are pleased to announce the  availability  of a new  version 
of Arjuna:  a programming system for  reliable  distributed  computing, 
and the Arjuna mailing list.

        The software  and the manual  for  the  Arjuna  system  can  be 
obtained by anonymous ftp: arjuna.ncl.ac.uk (128.240.150.1)

Arjuna System

        This beta release of  ArjunaPR2.0  fixes all known bugs present 
in ArjunaPR1.2B that have  been  reported to us or  that we have found, 
and contains only minimal information about how to use the new features 
provided.   This  release  should  be  compilable  with  the  following 
compilers:

        AT&T Cfront Release 2.1, on SunOS 4.1.x,
            (using Sun supplied lex and yacc).
        AT&T Cfront Release 3.0.1, on SunOS 4.1.x and Solaris 2.1,
            (using Sun supplied lex and yacc).
        GCC versions 2.1, 2.2.2, on SunOS 4.1.x,
            (using flex(v2.3.x) and bison).
        Patched GCC version 2.3.3 on SunOS 4.1.x and Solaris 2.1,
            (using flex(v2.3.x) and bison).
        Sun C++ 2.1, on SunOs 4.1.x,
            (using Sun's lex++ and yacc++).
        HP  C++ (B2402 A.02.34), HP-UX 8.07,
            (using HP supplied lex and yacc or lex++ and yacc++).

The major new features are:

        - Faster object store.
        - Support for replicated objects.
        - Memory resident object store.
        - Support for ANSAware (not available via ftp)

        Arjuna supports nested atomic actions (atomic transactions) for 
controlling operations on objects (instances of C++ classes), which can 
potentially be persistent. Arjuna has been implemented in C++ to run on 
stock  platforms  (Unix  on  SUNs,  HPs  etc).  The  software available 
includes  a C++  stub generator  which hides  much  of the  details  of 
client-server  based  programming,  plus  a system  programmer's manual 
containing  details of  how  to  install  Arjuna and  use it  to  build 
fault-tolerant  distributed  applications.  The software and the manual 
can be obtained by anonymous ftp: arjuna.ncl.ac.uk (128.240.150.1)

        Several  enhancements   and   ports  on   various   distributed 
computing platforms are in progress.  We would be pleased  to hear from 
researchers and teachers  interested in using Arjuna.  The programmer's 
manual  contains the  e-mail  addresses for sending  your  comments and 
problem reports.

ANSAware version of Arjuna

The ANSAware version of Arjuna is available from:

Architecture Projects Management Limited
Poseidon House
Castle Park                                  Phone    +44 223 323010
Cambridge                                    Fax      +44 223 359779
CB3 0RD                                      Internet apm@ansa.co.uk
United Kingdom                               UUCP     ...uknet!ansa!apm

Arjuna Mailing List

To enable us to  help people using Arjuna,  an electronic mail list has 
been setup. You can join  the Arjuna mailing list  by sending an e-mail 
message to "mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk" containing:

join arjuna 

For example : join arjuna John Smith

Mail  messages  can  then   be  sent  to  "arjuna@mailbase.ac.uk",  for 
distribution.


Arjuna Project Team
The Department of Computing Science,
The University,
Newcastle upon Tyne.
NE1 7RU, UK.

The work we did with Nigel still seems so fresh in my mind and yet it is so long ago.

Then I also remembered the work on Stabilis that some of our Brazilian PhD students did a few years later. We'd always talked about how the programming model we had in Arjuna was good for building complex applications (and Nigel's work agreed with that), but it took us all by surprise when they presented Stabilis: here was the largest and most complex system (a full relational database) built entirely on Arjuna! This was an impressive demonstration of what was possible with what we'd spent the last 6 years working on.

Definitely a time to reminisce!