This dissertation presents the functional information resource model, a data model for multi-media data bases which is an extension of the functional data model. The significant contribution of this distribution is in the presentation of a graphical, functional query language for this data model. This query language is called the informatics calculus.; The data model can be viewed as a data model for hypertext systems. Viewed in this light, the informatics calculus can be viewed as a proposal for an interface for hypertext systems which will enable such systems to capture the computation power of traditional databases.; The informatics calculus is a data base language in which the user works in a workspace of objects. An object has a type and a state. The type of an object determines its functionality. The emphasis in this dissertation is upon query objects, objects which extract information or generate applications from the information resource.; All informatics calculus objects consist of mosaics. A mosaic consists of tiles denoting entity classes, subclasses, conditions, functions, functors, functionals and other types of operations provided by the model. The spatial arrangement of these tiles determine a unique functional expression. For example, horizontal juxtaposition is used to denote the functional combinator of Cartesian product and vertical juxtaposition is used to denote functional composition. Each informatics calculus expression denotes a particular arrangement of information.; The final chapter of the dissertation discusses extensions of the informatics calculus which includes an update language and a language for querying the system catalogue. None of the proposed extensions to the informatics calculus departs from the functional framework or the graphical framework of programming by constructing mosaics. The amenability of the informatics calculus for parallel execution is also discussed.
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