Object-oriented real-time distributed programming and support middleware

The object oriented (OO) distributed real time (RT) programming movement started in the 1990s and is growing rapidly at this turn of this century (year 2000). The motivations are reviewed and then a brief overview is given of the particular programming scheme which the author and his collaborators have been establishing. The scheme is called the time triggered message triggered object (TMO) programming scheme and it is used to make specific illustrations of the issues and potentials of OO RT programming. The desirable features of middleware providing execution support for OO RT distributed programs are then discussed. The issue of fault tolerant execution of distributed RT objects and that of RT distributed/parallel simulation are also discussed.