A distributed processing system includes a first computer, and a second computer that is coupled to the first computer by a computer network. The first computer also includes a first Java virtual machine and a Java control system. The second computer includes a second Java virtual machine and a Java control system client. The second computer is configured to execute a task object. The task object includes several sub-tasks including one or more common sub-tasks. The task object also includes a quantity of input data for processing by the task object and a scheduling class that schedules execution of each of the sub-tasks.