Proceedings

This is a brief overview of terminology and issues related to Knowledge Representation (here-after KR) research, intended primarily for researchers working on Semantic Data Models within Database Management and Program Specifications within Programming ...

First of all, a few things about the basic terms I will use. A knowledge representation scheme is a formalism for representing knowledge. The term knowledge representation will be used to refer to knowledge representation schemes, knowledge ...

This paper surveys current research and practice concerning abstraction in database systems. Classical and semantic database models are reviewed and emphasized, as fundamental database abstraction mechanisms.

McLeod: This tutorial surveys recent research in data abstraction and conceptual modelling in the database area. In particular, I will present recent results in the area of higher level data models, sometimes called semantic data models.

The principal ...

This paper traces the development of data abstraction concepts in programming languages. A data abstraction, or abstract data type, describes a collection of abstract entities and operations on the entities. A program which uses a data abstraction can ...

Rowe: I am going to talk a little about data abstraction from a programming language viewpoint. I suspect that what I will say in some places will be every bit as controversial amongst programming language folks, as what Dennis said was amongst database ...

Balzer: This discussion is intended to set the stage for further discussions by soliciting AI, DB and PL views of “what should be modelled?” and the nature of models.

[This discussion suffered two problems. First, it was the initial attempt at the ...

Rowe: Data typing is a technique that researchers in the various areas use to solve a variety of problems. This session focuses on how types are used in a particular domain to solve particular kinds of problems. The long term goal is to answer the ...

In this session on behaviour I would like to raise, at least the following issues:

• What is the distinction between data and process?

• How are process and data related?

• How is behaviour, or system dynamics, modelled and specified?

• What is the ...

Presentation is intended to encompass notations and languages for expressing models. This session will focus on the linguistic and notational choices made in particular approaches. Emphasis will be placed on common ideas. For example, there have been ...

The topic of this session is the consistency of models. (I believe that consistency and integrity are substantially the same.) A model basically contains:

- states consisting of entities and various relationships between them,

- operations (functions) ...

Mylopoulos: When we talk about a model, it can be either a program snapshot or execution, or a program, a data base, a conceptual schema, or a knowledge base. We can think of a program as consisting of units of some sort, e.g., procedures, assertions, ...

The main point of this session is to report experiences with the development and application of modelling tools and techniques. As Diane Smith puts it, “Have you used it yet?” Despite the amount of work in this area there seems to be a substantial lack ...

Zilles: Before the conference began, I asked three people to give their perception of the conference as a whole. This is in contrast to the session oriented summaries that follow some of the topical session.

Let me begin by giving a couple of my own ...

Recent works on languages for modeling complex data base application environments show overlapping issues with other research areas such as Artificial Intelligence and Programming Languages. Moreover, a lot of attention is nowadays given to another ...

In 1978, the ASTRA research group at the University of Trondheim was formed to create a prototype of a relational data base machine with appropriate software. A major part of this development was the definition and implementation of an integrated data ...

Our group is perhaps unique in that our approach to modeling dynamic systems has a strong heritage from all three fields represented at this workshop. Each of the fields has contributed four major concepts to our modeling approach.

From the Data Base ...

We wish to briefly discuss recent work in conceptual modelling from a slightly different point of view in order to highlight the parallels between data and transactions, and then mention some benefits of this view.

A time-honoured way of describing a ...

There is a growing exchange of ideas amongst Artificial Intelligence (AI), Database (DB) and Programming Language (PL) researchers concerning conceptual modelling of complex, object-oriented applications. The complexity of these applications arises from ...

Despite the enormous advances that have been made in the specification of data types and data models in the fields of programming languages, databases and artificial intelligence; there remain a number of problems in attempting to unify the various ...

Type hierarchies abound in Artificial Intelligence, Data Bases and Programming Languages. Although their size, use and complexity differs, all share a central inference mechanism: Inheritance of information, their raison d'etre. This paper discusses ...

Vast differences in terminology aside, there is considerable overlap between work in knowledge representation, programming language data types, and database models. Our current work on the Cedar programming environment has necessitated integrating a ...

It is a combination of three components: 1) a collection of data structure types (the building blocks of any database that conforms to the model);

2) a collection of operators or inferencing rules, which can be applied to any valid instances of the data ...

When designing information processing systems, the key problem is to find what symbols and constructs (available in some given language) should be used so as to be able to answer the questions that the users want to ask and to perform the state ...

Most programming systems reflect a model of computation which sharply distinguishes between “passive” data objects and “active” program objects (procedures). Furthermore, procedures describe not only a set of computations but the precise flow of control ...

We consider the approach to modelling that our group has been developing, first to highlight differences between this and the approaches of other researchers, second to raise some issues related to understandability of models that we feel are common to ...

Smalltalk is an object-oriented language (Ingalls78, KayGoldberg77, Hewitt73). PIE is a subsystem that extends Smalltalk's descriptive power by supporting the creation, storage, retrieval and manipulation of network structures (GoldsteinBobrow80a,b,c; ...

A number of data abstraction, database, and conceptual modeling issues border on the three technical areas that this workshop addresses: artificial intelligence, database management, and programming languages. We assume that the workshop is dedicated to ...

People working in the areas of data abstraction, databases, and conceptual modeling have argued at considerable length over the meanings of such terms as “abstraction” and “type.”* Rather than add to this debate by offering yet another set of ...

The Natural-Language/Deduction group at SRI International has undertaken several large projects integrating knowledge representation, the modeling and use of distributed conventional databases, logical deduction, and natural-language processing. One of ...