Crosslets: Self-managing application deployment in a cross-platform operating environment

The Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is used for developing applications which can be run in a cross-platform operating environment. The underlying Java Virtual Machine (JVM) facilitates the execution of Java applications, but it still requires manual application deployment. There are various approaches, such as the Java Network Launch Protocol (JNLP), which address dynamic application deployment, but are limited in scope. In this paper, we present a new approach towards self-managing application deployment in a cross-platform operating environment. It is based on the idea of dynamically deducing an appropriate deployment process without user intervention. We present a self-descriptive deployment unit called crosslet and introduce crossware archives (XAR) to package and distribute it. The Java realization of the approach is described and its application for nomadic desktop computing is illustrated.