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Building an Integrated Persistent Application

  • Conference paper
Database Programming Languages (DBPL-4)

Part of the book series: Workshops in Computing ((WORKSHOPS COMP.))

Abstract

The major motivation for database programming language (DBPL) research is to facilitate the construction and maintenance of large dataintensive applications. To fully benefit from DBPLs, supporting methodologies and tools are needed. This paper describes the construction of a multi-author, multi-level thesaurus application (TA). Some tools and methodologies were used in the TA construction, and requirements for other tools and methodologies are identified as the result of our experiences. Although built in a specific language (Napier88), the principles discovered apply to other DBPLs.

The TA comprises several loosely-integrated components constructed by different programmers. The components were themselves implemented using general purpose sub-components, including libraries. A principle result is that a realistic application could be constructed quickly in a DBPL. Rapid construction was facilitated by the use of libraries, code reuse and an incremental construction methodology supported by the persistent store. Language features such as a polymorphic type system and structural type equivalence were important. Nevertheless, some problems were encountered with code reuse, with integrating independently constructed components, with the lack of concurrency and with build management such as installation and recompilation. Our experiences lead us to suggest several improvements, including models, methodologies and supporting tools for persistent application construction and maintenance.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Dag Sjøberg

    Present address: Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computing Science Department, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland

    Dag Sjøberg, Malcolm Atkinson, João Lopes & Phil Trinder

Authors
  1. Dag Sjøberg
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  2. Malcolm Atkinson
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  3. João Lopes
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  4. Phil Trinder
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computer Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Givat-Ram, Jerusalem, Israel

    Catriel Beeri PhD

  2. Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, 606-01, Kyoto, Japan

    Atsushi Ohori PhD

  3. Department of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer Street, 10012-1185, New York, NY, USA

    Dennis E. Shasha PhD

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Sjøberg, D., Atkinson, M., Lopes, J., Trinder, P. (1994). Building an Integrated Persistent Application. In: Beeri, C., Ohori, A., Shasha, D.E. (eds) Database Programming Languages (DBPL-4). Workshops in Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3564-7_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3564-7_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19853-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-3564-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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