The Service Location Protocol provides a scalable framework for the discovery and selection of network services. Using this protocol, computers using the Internet no longer need so much static configuration of network services for network based applications. This is especially important as computers become more portable, and users less tolerant or able to fulfill the demands of network system administration.

We describe ELROS, an embedded language for programming distributed applications using remote operations (ISO 9072-1 and 9072-2). The motivation for this work is the development of both large scale scien - tific distributed applications as well as ISO application protocol implementations. We compare our work with other systems, such as ISODE and DAS, that support remote operations programming and point out certain advantages of ELROS. Finally, we suggest ways in which the current implementation of ELROS can be improved. 1. INTRODUCTION Given the ubiquity of networking in modern computing, it is somewhat surprising that there are few distributed applications in production. By distributed application we do not mean networking applications that require constant human involvement, such as the use of file transfer facilities (e.g., FTAM, FTP), virtual terminal services (e.g., VT, TELNET), or electronic mail (e.g., X.400, SMTP). Rather, we mean a set of cooperating, communicating processes ...