A Simple, General Structure for Temporal Domains

Abstract

Much recent research has focused on .the need for, and definitions of, historical (or temporal) database and information systems to serve expanding information needs in a variety of applications. Almost all of this research has assumed that the domain of time itself was well-understood, and some representation for it simply needed to be included in the model to provide the needed temporal dimension. In this paper we present a simple, set-theoretic structure for a time domain which is independent of any particular calendric system. We concentrate on the general structure and operations necessary to support the needs arising in modelling time in information systems.