A Synthesis of Complex Objects and Object-Orientation

Abstract

Complex Object models, semantic or knowledge representation models on the one side, and object-oriented models on the other side are currently considered candidates for future databases. Either of them have their particular strongpoints and weaknesses, such that up to now no single model could be identified to suit all needs. Database models provide limited structuring capabilities and too poor semantics and object-oriented approaches suffer from their navigational one-object-at-a-time style of operation, that is, they need set oriented "object algebra" operations. In this paper we show how the approaches can be mixed into a single coherent approach, in an evolutionary way preserving their respective advantages: flexibility through powerful structuring primitives, rich semantics, encapsulation, and efficiency through optimizable descriptive, set-oriented query and update languages.