The fallacies of distributed computing are a set of assertions made by L Peter Deutsch and others at Sun Microsystems describing false assumptions that programmers new to distributed applications invariably make.
The list of fallacies generally[clarification needed] came about at Sun Microsystems. L. Peter Deutsch, one of the original Sun "Fellows", is credited[by whom?] with penning the first seven fallacies in 1994; however, Bill Joy and Tom Lyon had already identified the first four as "The Fallacies of Networked Computing"[2] (the article claims "Dave Lyon", but this is a mistake[citation needed]). Around 1997, James Gosling, another Sun Fellow and the inventor of Java, added the eighth fallacy.[2]
In an episode of "Software Engineering Radio" [3] Peter Deutsch added a ninth fallacy: "It's really an expansion of number 4. It extends beyond the boundaries of the physical network. ... The party you are communicating with is trustworthy."
The Eight Fallacies are something that I heard about at a Java One conference a long time ago by a guy named James Gosling. He attributed them to someone named Peter Deutsch and basically a bunch of guys at Sun had come up with a list of these fallacies.