An extensible Object-Oriented (OO) framework mechanism in an
object-oriented programming system defines objects and classes used to
discover and, if desired, validate computer systems in a network. The OO
framework mechanism defines a discover configuration object and one or
more discovery agent objects that cooperate to discover computer systems
in the network. If desired, the OO framework mechanism may also define one
or more candidate validator objects that validate the discovered computer
systems for use with a particular application or program.
