Copyright (c) 2000, 2002 Simon Williams
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CONTENTS OF "THE ASSOCIATIVE MODEL OF DATA"
By Simon Williams

1. LIMITATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES

2. DATA, DATABASES AND DATA MODELS

THE EARLY DAYS
MAGNETIC DISKS
FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES
DATABASES
METADATA
DATA MODELS SO FAR
      The Network Model
      The Hierarchical Model
      The Relational Model
      The Object Model
      The Object/Relational Model
XML
THE RELATIONAL MODEL TODAY
      Standards
      Limitations Again

3. THE RELATIONAL MODEL

OVERVIEW
RELATIONS
NORMALISATION
RELATIONAL LANGUAGES
      Relational Algebra
SQL

4. THE OBJECT MODEL

OBJECTS AND METHODS
CLASSES
THE OBJECT MODEL OF DATA
SHORTCOMINGS OF THE OBJECT MODEL OF DATA
      Conceptual Model
      Not Everything is an Object
      Querying
      Granularity
      The Boundary Problem
      Weight and Complexity
      Maturity
OO LANGUAGES DON'T MANDATE OO DATABASES
DO OBJECT DATABASES HAVE A FUTURE?

5. CRITERIA FOR A NEW DATA MODEL

DATA MODELS: A FORMAL PERSPECTIVE
MODELS AND MODELLING SYSTEMS
PROBLEM DOMAIN

6. INTRODUCING THE ASSOCIATIVE MODEL

THE BOOKSELLER PROBLEM

7. CONCEPTUAL LAYER

ENTITIES AND ASSOCIATIONS
      Why Associations?
ATTRIBUTES AS ASSOCIATIONS
THE INFORMATION FEATURE
ENTITY TYPES AND ENTITIES
      Identity
      Names
ASSOCIATION TYPES AND ASSOCIATIONS
      Inverse Associations
      Cardinality
      Default targets
      Inferred Associations
INSTANCE ASSOCIATION TYPES
SUBTYPES AND SUPERTYPES
SUBSETS AND SUPERSETS
SCALARS, STRINGS AND REFERENCES
CREATING ASSOCIATIVE SCHEMAS

8. LOGICAL LAYER

ITEMS
      Identifier
      Name
      Item Type
LINKS
      Identifier
      Source, Verb and Target
      Originating transaction
      Link Types
CHAPTERS AND PROFILES
UPDATES
TRANSACTIONS
      Atomicity
      Consistency
      Isolation
      Durability
      Recovery
      Concurrency
      Security
      Schema Modifications
THE TIME DIMENSION

9. METACODE

SOFTWARE RE-USE
OMNICOMPETENT PROGRAMMING
SEPARATING RULES AND PROCEDURES
STANDARD PROGRAM TYPES

10. LANGUAGE FOR THE ASSOCIATIVE MODEL 153

A TREE-BASED APPROACH
      Request trees
      Result Trees
      Binding Nodes
      Query Parameters
      Operator Nodes
      Recursive Closure
A SET-BASED APPROACH
      Associative Algebra
      Querying
XML: A DOCUMENT-BASED APPROACH
      Associative versus Relational
GRAPHICAL DESIGN AND MODELLING TECHNIQUES

11. BUSINESS RULES 185

TERMINOLOGY
RULES IN AN ENTERPRISE
GOOD RULES ARE DECLARATIVE
RULES SO FAR
      Martin and Odell
      Ronald Ross
      Chris Date
      Object Management Group
STATE AND STATE DOMAINS
      State and Database Management Systems
      Other views of State
THE COMPONENTS OF STATE
      Naming States
      Predicates
      Effectual and Ineffectual States
      Management State Domains
CHANGES
RULES
      Rules in a Database Management System

12. BACKGROUND TO THE ASSOCIATIVE MODEL

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
THE ASSOCIATIVE MODEL VERSUS THE BINARY MODEL
      Associative Model versus Binary Model
      Associative Model versus Triple Store

13. CHALLENGES OF THE ASSOCIATIVE MODEL

ABANDONING THE RECORD
DISTINGUISHING ENTITIES AND ASSOCIATIONS
NAMING ENTITIES
USING REFERENCES, NOT VALUES
MOVING AWAY FROM OBJECT ORIENTATION
RE-ASSERTING THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM DOMAIN
FEWER PROGRAMMERS?

14. THE RELATIONAL MODEL REVISITED

CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION
RELATIONSHIPS AND IDENTITY
DESIGN COMPLEXITY
IMPLEMENTATION INDEPENDENCE COMPROMISED
      Sub-optimal Normalisation
      Triggers and Stored Procedures
MANAGING HISTORIC AND FUTURE VALUES
VALUES AND DOMAINS
MODELLING CARDINALITY
SPECIAL VALUES
      Nulls
      Default Values
      Type Values
WEB SERVICES

15. BENEFITS OF THE ASSOCIATIVE MODEL

OMNICOMPETENT PROGRAMMING
FEATURE PARTITIONING
INSTANCE SCHEMA
SCHEMA AGGREGATION
THE TIME DIMENSION
BUSINESS RULE AUTOMATION

APPENDIX 1: THE BOOKSELLER PROBLEM: SCHEMAS COMPARED

APPENDIX 2: REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX