[comp.object] Object-oriented Databases and CASE

venu@buckwheat.sps.mot.com (Vasudevan Venugopal) (03/16/90)

>... Has anyone seen literature regarding data repository support for CASE
> Environments....

There are two views to this. For an excellent view of the problem from a database
expert's viewpoint , see Phil Bernstein's paper in the 9th Int. Conference on
Software Engineering. Also see:
	* Klaus Dittrich's paper on DAMOKLES in Lecture Notes in Comp. Science, 
	Vol 244,G.Goos and J.Hartmains (eds).

	* PMDB work,Maria Penedo, TRW.

	* Gail Kaiser's tutorial, ICDE '90 on CASE databases.

	* David Garlan's work at CMU(more programming environments than
	CASE as I see it).....

	* Work at the University of Colorado as part of the CACTIS/SEMBASE
	project.

A contrasting(but not conflicting) view(mine and of the TRIAD group at the Ohio
State University) rests on the belief that CASE is replacing not just the file
system with a database, but an operating system with a DB-CENTERED VIRTUAL MACHINE.
This then implies that a CASE database should not only provide repository 
facilities, but being an active database, should also provide some of the Virtual 
Machine functionality as well. If one chooses a well designed virtual 
m/c (environment) such as UNIX as a starting point, one could ask:

	1. What would be the database equivalent of UNIX pipes.

	2. How would a database(knowledge-base, if you insist) provide
	inferencing facilities such as provided by the UNIX Make tool.
	How can this be buried into the database.

	3. Should CASE databases emulate some of the neat things about
	files and directories and soft links etc., and provide CONTAINERS
	(multiple name spaces)?
...
..
	Some of these q's are addressed by my papers and PhD thesis(Ohio
	State University):
	1. "Integrated Tool Support in Object-Based Environments", to 
	be presented in the International Conf. on Systems integration-90.
	
	2. "Cotools: A tool composition mechanism for object-based environments"
	ACM Computer Science Conference-90.

	3. "Integrated Tool Support for Object-Based Environments", PhD thesis,
	Vasudevan Venugopal, Ohio State, 1990.

	4."Plan Integration in Knowledge-Based Software Environments", OSU
	TR, and to be presented in the 2nd Int. Conference on Software 
	Engg. and Knowledge Engineering-90.

	5. "On database Support for Cooperative Work" to be published as
	an OSU tech report.

--Venu.