A compiler model for a relational data base management system
Andrew T. F. Hutt · Software Practice and Experience · 1979
Abstract One of the chief difficulties which needs to be overcome during the early design stages of a system is that of establishing a satisfactory design for that system. From the time it was first conceived it was apparent that the Relational Data Base Management System is like a compiler in so far as it takes a succession of user requests for information formulated in an applied predicate calculus and translates each one into a series of calls which access an underlying data base and transform data from that data base into the form the user wishes to see. This paper compares the architecture of the Relational Data Base Management System with that of a compiler, and then demonstrates the use of the architecture when processing a language based on an applied predicate calculus. Finally, the paper describes a number of extensions to that architecture which are required to solve the particular problems raised by the data base system.