1. A method for selecting a resource based on a measure of a processing cost, the method comprising: receiving resource information identifying a first resource and a second resource for processing by a program component; determining at least one of a first measure of a specified processing cost for the processing of the first resource and a second measure of the processing cost for the processing of the second resource; selecting one of the first resource and the second resource based on the at least one of the first measure and the second measure; and identifying, to the program component, the selected one of the first resource and the second resource for processing.