Abstract
Our thesis is that the external representation of all components of a database system should be under programmer control: objects, schemes, commands, even the representation specifications themselves. Here we give the rationale and design for the PROTEUS interface system that sits atop an object-oriented DBMS. After introducing the model, TEDM, for the DBMS, we describe the classes of objects that model components of the database of interest to PROTEUS: type definitions, representation definitions, layouts, commands, and representation mappings. The advantage of “objectifying” everything is three-fold: the database itself can manage all the information of interest to PROTEUS, representation can be changed via database updates, and the representation mappings themselves can be expressed as database commands or rules. We conclude by showing how the pieces fit together, and outline some of our current research directions.
D. Maier’s work was partially supported by a contract from Tektronix Computer Research Laboratory and NSF grant IST 83 51730, co-sponsored by Tektronix Foundation, Intel, Digital Equipment, Servio Logic, Mentor Graphics, Xerox, IBM and the Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce.
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Anderson, T.L., Ecklund, E.F., Maier, D. (1991). PROTEUS: The DBMS User Interface as an Object. In: Dittrich, K.R., Dayal, U., Buchmann, A.P. (eds) On Object-Oriented Database Systems. Topics in Information Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84374-7_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84374-7_10
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