Entity-Relationship versus Object-Oriented Modeling and the Underlying DBMS.

摘要

Despite the impressive accomplishments in relational database research, greater support is needed for persistence of the new types of data encountered with object-oriented programming. The concept of object-orientation is not new in the realm of programming; however, its utilization in database management systems is still immature. Regardless of this fact, there is an urgency for object-oriented database technology. With this increase in demand for the next generation databases comes the need to examine object-oriented data modeling versus the conventional entity-relationship modeling of relational database design. This thesis objective is to analyze both paradigms to determine if object-oriented modeling can significantly improve Department of Defense systems. After analyzing the entity-relationship paradigm and a representation of object-oriented modeling techniques we see a unifying of conceptual models encompassing both application and database development. Object-orientation's higher level of abstraction enables modeling of all problem domains and provides a common language between developer and client. The critical issue in adoption of the object-oriented paradigm becomes not whether to adopt, but how to adopt object-oriented techniques. The benefits of object-oriented technology close the semantic gap by helping the computer to 'see' things our way.