A semantic framework for the design of data intensive applications in a persistent programming language

The type system of a programming language and the data model of a DBMS provide a similar function-the abstract description of the structure of the application world. Type systems available in persistent programming languages such as Napier88 are extremely powerful and precise tools for describing structures on which computation of arbitrary complexity may be expressed. The data models commonly found in a DBMS are usually less expressive, but compensate by being easier to use. In particular semantic data models are designed to permit the description of the structure of a database using concepts close to those used to structure information in the real world. This paper describes an attempt to combine the best features of both worlds by creating a semantic data model interface to Napier88. The database structure is captured as an IFO schema and transformed into a set of Napier88 type declarations and low level procedures which act as a basis on which to build the application