GALILEO: a strongly-typed, interactive conceptual language

ABSTRACT

Galileo, a programming language for database applications, is presented. Galileo is a strongly-typed, interactive programming language designed specifically to support semantic data model features (classification, aggregation, and specialization), as well as the abstraction mechanisms of modern programming languages (types, abstract types, and modularization). The main contributions of Galileo are (a) a flexible type system to model database structure and semantic integrity constraints; (b) the inclusion of type hierarchies to support the specialization abstraction mechanisms of semantic data models; (c) a modularization mechanism to structure data and operations into interrelated units (d) the integration of abstraction mechanisms into an expression-based language that allows interactive use of the database without resorting to a new stand-alone query language. Galileo will be used in the immediate future as a tool for database design and, in the long term, as a high-level interface for DBMSs.

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INDEX TERMS

Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: GALILEO
      D.3.3 Language Constructs and Features
          Subjects: Data types and structures; Abstract data types

  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.1 Logical Design
          Subjects: Schema and subschema; Data models
      H.2.3 Languages
          Subjects: Data description languages (DDL); Data manipulation languages (DML); Query languages

General Terms:
Design, Languages