Semantic data models-an alternative to objects for simulation

Concerned with the use of object-oriented systems in the simulation of continuous and discrete time systems such as process plants. The authors begin by briefly stating some requirements of simulation from the point of view of data modelling and management. They then examine how the notion of objects as used in the object-oriented community provides the necessary support or otherwise for these requirements, arguing against the merits of encapsulation in simulation. They show that the difference between an object-oriented data model and a semantic data model is precisely in their degrees of encapsulation, i.e. an object-oriented data model without encapsulation is a semantic data model. They propose that DB-Prolog (C. Tan et al., 1989) with its powerful and flexible semantic data model and a seamlessly integrated declarative query facility is well suited to simulation