An object-oriented data model for the research laboratory

摘要

This paper presents work in-progress on an object-oriented data model for representing the semantics of the research laboratory. The Laboratory Computing Environment (LCE) is an application development software tool designed to improve productivity in the implementation of research laboratory computing systems. The core of the LCE is an object-oriented database management system. We describe the complex requirements of laboratory application environments and present motivation for using the object-oriented approach.

rn

The LCE concept is the result of several years of experience in developing custom laboratory systems. One of the principal difficulties in developing scientific applications is the need to integrate many different software tools in order to represent the numerous abstract data types which are required even in simple applications. An object-oriented data management system, at the outset, appeared most likely to meet the need for tight integration of complex data types.