TEARLESS: Secure Coordination of Rich Internet Application Tiers

We are witnessing a drastic shift in architectures for web applications. This in response to the increasing market for Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) that offer collaborative and off-line functionality, at global scales. Realizing these qualities requires distributing previously centralized application logic and state vertically from the server to a client tier (e.g., for desktop-like and off-line client functionality), and horizontally between instances of the same tier (e.g., for collaborative client functionality and for scaling of resource-starved services). Both bring about the essential complexity of maintaining the consistency and safeguarding the security of replicated or shared application assets, along with the accidental complexity of reconciling a myriad of heterogenous tier-specific technology.
Contract ID: 150040
The Tearless project aims to address both complexities through a vision in which multi-tier web applications are developed, tested and maintained as a single artefact that spans all tiers. This tierless programming should relieve developers of distribution, consistency and security concerns. We will not pursue this vision through a new and potentially esoteric programming language. Instead, we will pursue a two-pronged solution of enabling technologies & development tooling. This enables the gradual incorporation of our technology in existing code, and maximizes valorization opportunities for different stakeholders.