Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!dennis
From: dennis@boulder.colorado.edu
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Seamless integration of type systems
Message-ID: <10931@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 22 Aug 89 04:51:50 GMT
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Reply-To: dennis@boulder.colorado.edu ()
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Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
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I would like to challenge the idea that seamless integration
of a programming language with the database
(aka persistent programming languages)
is a good idea.  I am involved in a project here at Colorado
which is already using the following programming languages
trying to access the same database:
	1. Ada
	2. C
	3. C++
	4. Prolog
We may eventually end up adding several other languages.
In this situation, there is no obvious one language in which to embed
the database type system.

Instead, we appear to need a database model that is relatively
independent of any one programming language, and that can be
accessed successfully, if not cleanly, from many different languages.
For our purpose, we have some small evidence that relational
models work better (in a best-fit sense) than OO models.
It is true that an OO model would fit C++ well, but it
doesn't fit well with Ada, and certainly not Prolog.
Whereas, there are well defined procedural interfaces
defined for relational models.

-Dennis Heimbigner
University of Colorado, Boulder
(dennis@boulder.colorado.edu)