Development of an object-oriented DBMS

Abstract

We describe the results of developing the GemStone object-oriented database server, which supports a model of objects similar to that of Smalltalk-80. We begin with a summary of the goals and requirements for the system: an extensible data model that captures behavioral semantics, no artificial bounds on the number or size of database objects, database amenities (concurrency, transactions, recovery, associative access, authorization) and an interactive development environment. Object-oriented languages, Smalltalk in particular, answer some of these requirements. We discuss satisfying the remaining requirements in an object oriented context, and report briefly on the status of the development efforts. This paper is directed at an audience familiar with object-oriented languages and their implementation, but perhaps unacquainted with the difficulties and techniques of database system development. It updates the original report on the project [CM], and expands upon a more recent article [MDP].