Methods and apparatus for implementing data bases to provide object-oriented invocation of applications

The data bases include method entries, message entries, and class entries. Method entries refer to commands or other mechanisms used to invoke applications. Message entries each represent a type of operation which can be performed on instances in a class which correspond to that message and identify a method map which contains one or more references to method entries stored in the data base. Class entries, each of which is unique in a data base, and identify types of instances having common characteristics as well as identifying a corresponding group of message entries. The data bases may be in a data processing network comprised of one or more platforms or nodes and may be either global data bases accessible to the entire network or local data bases, each of which is accessible to only a part of the network.