Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!tekcae!moiram
From: moiram@tekcae.TEK.COM (Moira Mallison)
Newsgroups: comp.databases,sci.bio.technology
Subject: Re: Object-oriented DBMS Systems
Keywords: DBMS, Object-oriented
Message-ID: <1854@tekcae.TEK.COM>
Date: 11 Jul 88 17:58:24 GMT
References: <26724@bbn.COM>
Reply-To: moiram@tekcae.UUCP (Moira Mallison)
Distribution: comp.databases
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 32


There have been sessions on databases at both OOPSLA '86 and '87
conferences.  The proceedings will provide at good starting 
place, in general.  You might look at recent SIGMOD proceedings,
as well.

Specifically, two commercially available OODBMS are GemStone (1),
and Vbase (2).   GemStone has a single language (OPAL) for data
definition and data manipulation.  OPAL is based on a subset
of Smalltalk.   More information can be found in "Development
of an Object-Oriented DBMS" by D. Maier, J. Stein, A. Otis, and
A. Purdy.  (OOPSLA '86).

Vbase has separate languages for data definition (Type Definition
Language) and data manipulation (C Object Processor).  It is
based on the abstract data type paradigm  of CLU.   One of the
major implications of that basis is a strongly typed system.
More information about Vbase can be found in "Combining Language
and Database Advances in an Object-Oriented Development Environment"
by T. Andrews, and C. Harris.  (OOPSLA '87).

In terms of availablity, both are available on VMS and Sun.
In terms of extensibility, both provide the ability to create
your own classes, and subclass off of them.   In terms of performance,
I don't know of any studies that have been completed in this
area.  Don't expect anything close to what you get out of a
commercial RDBMS, though.   The technology is not there yet.

Moira Mallison

GemStone is a product of Servio-Logic, Inc, Beaverton, Or.
Vbase is a product of Ontologic, Inc, Billerica, MA