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Test driven development (TDD) is a software development process that emphasizes the creation of tests for all functionality in a piece of software. Before adding a new feature, the developer first writes one or more tests for the feature which will fail (due to the feature not being implemented yet). At this point, the developer will write just enough code so that the previously defined tests pass. If tests have not been written for various edge cases or subtleties of the feature, these conditions will not be handled in the implementation.

The runtime configuration of a distributed system depends to a certain extent on the topology of the desired network. There are two typical scenarios in the IP networking world. One is a local area network (LAN), in which all members of the system are on the same IP subnet and on the same switched Ethernet network. This topology would be found in systems for large scale distributed computations or simulations. The second scenario involves clusters of computing nodes (i.e.

The concept of "patterns" in software development has evolved as a means of documenting and formalizing techniques for solving certain classes of problems. A pattern typically begins with a problem statement and then describes a general solution to the problem. From this, a software developer may apply the pattern to their particular variant of the problem.

The information model is an important part of a Distrix system and can greatly enhance the overall design and architecture while also reduce the amount of coding required. It is useful to design the information model properly from the start to allow for future expandability and refactoring.

In a previous article, various considerations for making information from a Distrix system available on the web were discussed. The techniques presented were suitable for creating a traditional web application in which each request from a browser results in a snapshot of the information in the system at that point in time being returned from the server.

Modern software systems often have a need to present an HTTP-based interface to the world, as this is frequently the medium chosen for end-user interfaces. While Distrix excels at quick and efficient communications between devices and software processes, the information within a Distrix system can also easily be exposed via a web interface. This can be useful as a way of rapidly creating a user interface to a Distrix system that is accessible to anyone with a web browser.

A leading physical security company builds its solutions around the idea that performance and integration should be affordable and accessible. During the preliminary research and development process, the company envisioned a central management service that would allow customers to enter and manage system configurations or processes remotely, or enable the company to manage these tasks for them.

Healthcare Informatics published an interesting article today about challenges in medical device interoperability.

Distrix has been selected for trial in the 2011 Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID). CWID is a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff-directed annual event that engages cutting-edge information technology, focusing on operational shortfalls identified by combatant commanders and government agencies. Technologies are approved for participation because they address a new information sharing capability or potentially improve an existing capability.

Chad Trytten, CEO and Founder of Spark Integration Technologies Inc. writes about the use of Distrix to integrate new and legacy systems into a System of Systems (SoS) in which standards are leveraged rather than replaced.

See the full article at http://www.mil-embedded.com/articles/id/?5169.