Abstract
In light of the necessary investments, commercially available data base systems usually offer comparatively general-purpose interfaces. These are suitable only for the data base specialist. In order for a data base system to attract non-programmer users, interfaces must be provided that approximate the special user terminology and conceptualizations. If, in particular, these users form a heterogeneous group, a variety of interfaces will be required. Questions of interest are then the extent to which user interfaces should be standardized, the techniques which allow rapid implementation of new more specialized interfaces, or the procedure for selecting the most suitable interface for a given problem. Based on the concept of hierarchy of abstract machines, the paper presents a possible approach to the solution of these questions. Three examples will be introduced to critically examine the concept and demonstrate some of its merits and shortcomings.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J.R.Abrial, Data Semantics, in [Kl 74], 1–59
R.F.Boyce, D.D.Chamberlin, W.F.King, M.M.Hammer, Specifying Queries as Relational Expressions, in [Kl 74], 169–176
Burroughs Corp., B6700/7700 Executive System Programming Language (ESPOL), Information Manual, 1972
E.F. Codd, A Relational Model for Large Shared Data Banks, Comm.ACM 13 (1970), No.6, 377–387
E.F.Codd, Relational Completeness of Data Base Sublanguages, in: R.Rustin (ed), Data Base Systems, Courant Computer Science Symp., Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1972, 65–98
E.F.Codd, Seven Steps to Rendezvous with the Casual üser, in [Kl 74], 179–199
L.S.Coles, An Online Question-Answering System with Natural Language and Pictorial Input, Proc. 23rd Natl. ACM Conf. (1968), 169–181
G.Goos, Hierarchies, in F.L.Bauer (ed), Advanced Course on Software Engineering, Lecture Notes in Econ. and Math. Systems, vol.81, 29–46
C.C.Green, The Application of Theorem Proving to Question-Answering Systems, Tech. Rep. No. CS138, Stanford Univ. 1969
J.W.Klimbie, K.L.Koffeman (eds), Data Base Management, North-Holland Publ. Co. 1974
K.D.Kraegeloh, P.C.Lockemann, Hierarchies of Data Base Languages: An Example, Information Systems (in print)
B.Sundgren, Conceptual Foundation of the Infological Approach to Data Bases, in [Kl 74], 61–94
ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Very High Level Languages, March 1974, ACM, New York 1974
H.Wedekind, Data Base Systems I, BI-Wissenschaftsverlag, Reihe Informatik, vol.16, 1974 (in German)
N. Wirth, PL360, A Programming Language for the 360 Computers, Journ.ACM 15 (1968), No.1, 37–74
W.A. Woods, Procedural Semantics for a Question-Answering Machine, Proc. AFIPS Fall Joint Comp.Conf. 33(1968), 457–471
W.A. Woods, Progress in Natural Language Understanding — An Application to Lunar Geology, Proc. AFIPS Natl.Comp.Conf. 42(1973), 441–450
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1976 Springer-Verlag
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lockemann, P.C. (1976). Data base user languages for the non-programmer. In: Hasselmeier, H., Spurth, W.G. (eds) Data Base Systems. IBM 1975. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 39. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-07612-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-07612-3_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-07612-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-38130-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive