A Configurable Data Modelling System

[摘要] User interaction facilities are usually the weakest component of database management systems (DBMS). They are typically few in number and poor in quality as compared both to other features of DBMS and to user interaction facilities for other kinds of software. One cause for this is that adding further mechanisms to a DBMS requires tedious and repetitive programming effort in the context of a complex system. The Configurable Data Modelling System (CDMS) attempts to get round this problem by providing an environment in which interaction facilities can be built more straightforwardly. The CDMS considers a user interaction facility to be the pairing of a conceptual data model with a concrete user interface. The CDMS provides a generic data model, comprising elements for describing data structures, constraints and behaviour, together with one menu driven system for creating conceptual models as instances of the generic model and another for creating user interfaces to each data model thus generated. This thesis describes the important features of the system. The thesis discusses the main difficulty in creating such a system; that is, obtaining a consistent and coherent analysis of all of the components which might be housed in a DBMS. Apart from a theoretical analysis of the relevant issues, the research presented in this thesis has also established a prototype to test the theory. The research has been undertaken in a persistent programming environment. Persistent language technology has enabled the construction of a sophisticated and well-integrated CDMS. At the same time, the research has enhanced persistent programming environments with models, methodologies and tools that are crucial to the exploitation of persistent programming in construction and maintenance of long-lived, data-intensive application systems.

[发布机构] University:University of Glasgow

[关键词] Computer science