A new architecture for making highly scalable applications

Abstract

An application is a logical image of the world on a computer. A scalable application is an application that allows one to update that logical image at run time. To put it in operational terms: an application is scalable if a client can change between time T1 and time T2 - the logic of the application as expressed by language L; - the structure and volume of the stored knowledge; - the user interface of the application; while clients working with the application at time T1 will work with the changed application at time T2 without performing any special action between T1 and T2. In order to realize such a scalable application a new architecture has been developed that fully orbits around language. In order to verify the soundness of that architecture a program has been build. Both architecture and program are called CommunSENS. The main purpose of this paper is: - to list the relevant elements of the architecture; - to give a visual presentation of how the program and its image of the world look like; - to give a visual presentation of how the image can be updated. Some relevant philosophical and practical backgrounds are included in the appendixes.