A graduate course in database management
ACM SIGMOD Record
Bibliography on data base structures
ACM SIGMIS Database
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
The computer industry is currently devoting considerable time and energy to the subject of data description. Most software systems produced today provide some form of data description facility. Computer users and vendors have banded together to study data description; two prominent examples are CODASYL which has two committees working on data description languages, and the ACM Special Interest Group on File Definition and Translation (SIGFIDET) which was organized expressly to study data description problems. Interest in data description has even extended to standards groups: The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) have both taken a preliminary look at the feasibility of standardizing data description languages. The purpose of this note is to explore briefly four current problems in data description: (1) the multiple data description problem, (2) the problem of “physical” data description, (3) the distinction between “logical” and “physical” data, and (4) the problem of a common or standard data description language. Before getting to these issues, however, it will be helpful first to review what is meant by “data description” and second to identify the principal reasons for making data descriptions.