[Pl-seminar] Semantics Seminar Schedule

[Mitchell Wand]

NU Programming Languages Seminar
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
306 Egan  Hall, Northeastern University
    (building 44 on http://www.campusmap.neu.edu/)
9:30-11:30

Mark Logan
Northeastern University

Anomaly:  A special purpose language for System and Network Management.


One of the central problems of system administration is coping with
heterogeneity.  Even in medium sized local area networks, the number
of unique configurations can grow too large to manage manually.  A
number of techniques for managing heterogeneity have emerged over the
years, including:  The aggregation of recurring configuration data via
OOP techniques,  the use of RDBMS back-ends for storing configuration
data, and the use of basic logic programming techniques in 
configuration scripts.

Anomaly is a declarative data specification language that combines
elements of these three techniques.  Our key insight is that
administrators often configure hosts, switches, and other objects in a
LAN using contextual data, that is, data that originates in the
physical or logical environment of the item.  Anomaly uses
environmental acquisition to allow administrators to model these 
contextual relationships explicitly.  This technique can be used to
exploit structure implicit in the design of the network, and reduce the
complexity of the network configurations.

Our talk will cover the motivation for Anomaly, its design, and how
its semantics simplify system and network administration.
 
Upcoming presentations:

6/19 Manuel Serrano, "Scheme Fair Threads"

Most meetings will be 930-1130 in 306 EG.