Daniel Sagalowicz

The Property of Separability And Its Application to Physical Database Design

A theoretical approach to the optimal physical design of a large multifile database is presented. The approach is based on the concept that, given a set of access structures and transaction processing methods that satisfy a certain property called separability, the problem of optimally assigning access structures to the whole database can be reduced to the collective subproblems of optimizing individual (smaller) objects in the database independently of one another. The formal concept is introduced, and applications to both relational and network model database systems are discussed. The approach presented significantly reduces the complexity of the design problem which has the potential of being combinatorially explosive.

DBMS and AI: is there any common point of view?

Recent workshops have explored commonality among the points of view of AL, DBMS and programming language researchers. On the surface, it would appear that DBMS researchers are building smarter data base systems and that AL researchers are building expert systems containing a knowledge base. However, it appears that there is minimal commonality to the points of view expressed by these communities. Therefore, the author is dubious of any significant cross fertilisation. He illustrates a few differences in points of view in the two communities by 3 examples.

Natural language interfaces

The panel will focus on the different approaches to creating natural language interfaces to DBMS. Of particular interest is the manner in which database definition information, user feedback dialogues, storage of the lexicon and database path selection are handled. The panelists have all been involved in implementing such interfaces.