Long-term database support for EXPRESS data

摘要

The data modeling language STEP/EXPRESS enjoys a spreadingpopularity beyond engineering. Its structural object orientation, forinstance, is appropriate for scientific and statistical database (SSDB)modeling as well. As our database prototype illustrates, EXPRESS canalso be used for data definition. Following the STEP approach, datamanipulation is done via SDAI (Standard Data Access Interface). Besidesincreasing awareness of evolving STEP technology, this paper elaborateson a common issue of both engineering databases and SSDBs: the long-termretention of vast amounts of data. The storage of massive data overdecades imposes serious problems on any DBMS. Application-orienteddatabase archiving helps solve them. We indicate how to exploit andenhance SDAI to make it an archive interface