A call to order

ABSTRACT

Scientific applications are infrequent users of commercial database management systems. We feel that a key reason is they do not offer good support for ordered data structures, such as multidimensional arrays, that are needed for natural representation of many scientific data types. In this papers, we lay out issues in database support of ordered structures, consider possible approaches along with their advantages and shortcomings, and direct the reader to the wide variety of prior work outside the data management field that might be successfully applied in this endeavor.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT

Additional Classification:
  E. Data
  E.1 DATA STRUCTURES
      Subjects: Arrays

  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.1 Logical Design
          Subjects: Data models
      H.2.3 Languages
          Subjects: Data manipulation languages (DML)

  J. Computer Applications

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Theory