Experimental Software Systems: COIL: A Common Object Interconnection Language to Support Database Integration and Evolution

EIA 9806829 King，Roger McIver，William J.University of Colorado at Boulder ESS：CoIL：一种支持数据库集成和演进的通用对象互连语言商业信息管理技术即将经历一个巨大的发展阶段。新兴的全球经济对分布式数据库技术产生了巨大的需求，这样，分散在各地的公司就可以管理散布在数十或数百个不兼容数据库中的信息。高带宽网络技术的发展为支持这种分布式数据库提供了基础设施。缺少的是有效利用这种硬件的软件。目前可用的软件允许访问数据，而不管其物理位置如何，但对于在数据结构和用于描述数据的术语上不兼容的相互关联的数据库，没有提供重要的支持。简单地说，当前的软件允许数据库位于全球多个物理位置，但无法有效地解决语义差异。COIL(通用对象互连语言)项目的目标是开发一种计算机语言，用于编程和快速发展多个不兼容数据库之间的互连。COIL编程语言将允许使用主流关系数据库产品(如Oracle、Sybase和Microsoft Access)的软件应用程序互连。COIL还将允许应用程序在关系系统和更新的、更强大的面向对象和对象/关系数据库之间共享数据。

EIA 9806829 King, Roger McIver, William J. University of Colorado at Boulder ESS: COIL: A Common Object Interconnection Language to Support Database Integration and Evolution Commercial information management technology is about to undergo a massive developmental phase. The emerging global economy has created a dramatic demand for distributed database technology, so that far-flung corporations can manage information that is strewn across dozens or hundreds of incompatible databases. The development of high-bandwidth networking technology has provided the infrastructure for supporting such distributed databases. What is missing is the software to make effective use of this hardware. Currently available software allows data to be accessed regardless of its physical location, but does not provide significant support for interrelating databases that are incompatible in the way they structure data and in the terminology used to describe data. Simply put, current software allows databases to be located at multiple physical places around the globe, but cannot effectively resolve semantic differences. The COIL (Common Object Interconnection Language) project has as its goal the development of a computer language for programming and rapidly evolving interconnections between multiple, incompatible databases. The COIL programming language will allow software applications using mainstream relational database products (such as Oracle, Sybase, and Microsoft Access) to be interconnected. COIL will also allow applications to share data between relational systems and newer, more powerful object-oriented and object/relational databases.