Pointer Swizzling in Non-Mapped Object Stores.
Lutz Wegner, Manfred Paul, Jens Thamm, Sven Thelemann · 1996
Pointer Swizzling has been recognized as an efficient persistent storage concept for object stores. Here, we show how the classical Record (Tuple) Identifiers (RID, TID) scheme can be combined with run-time pointer swizzling to avoid copying of persistent objects within main memory. The paper also points out advantages, disadvantages, and open problems of this new approach. The details are explained in the context of the complex object database ESCHER which puts emphasis on the visual interface requiring fast navigation in the object tree. Keywords Persistent storage, pointer swizzling, complex objects 1 Introduction ESCHER is a complex object database for the eNF 2 data model [5], an extension of the classical nonfirst normal-form data model [13, 18]. ESCHER became operational in 1989 as a database editor [11, 23, 25] featuring a tabular representation of hierarchical objects. Interaction is achieved by means of so-called fingers which is a generalization of the well-known cursor...