On one side the complexity of the design of distributed application systems is usually reduced significantly by using a distributed programming model that abstracts from the actual distribution and maybe even from the actual decomposition of the application. On the other side the developer needs to express the static and dynamic cooperation properties of the distributed application and therefore needs to control its decomposition and distribution.
An orthogonal distribution language (ODL) is presented. It allows the developer to independently describe and adapt the decomposition and distribution of an application written in a uniform object-oriented and distribution-transparent language independently; i.e. without affecting the semantics of the application.